Method and system for providing low bandwidth and high bandwidth communications services using different user equipment profiles

ABSTRACT

A network platform manages the provisioning of a UE with a dominant identity profile and a recessive identity profile. The dominant profile is associated with a user&#39;s existing wireless data plan and the recessive profile corresponds to a data plan of a provider of device, or machine-to-machine, services to the UE. The UE uses the two profiles to transmit separate data contexts on separate respective bearers. When managing two separate bearers, the UE always uses the dominant profile first for managing a handoff to a stronger cell. The UE reports that the new cell that now serves the dominant context is the only cell that has enough strength to support the recessive context, even if other cells near the UE have signals strong enough. This necessarily causes the recessive context to always be handed off to the same cell to which the dominant context has already been handed off.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, and is acontinuation of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/593,846 (“'846”),filed on May 12, 2017, and entitled “Method and system for providing lowbandwidth and high bandwidth communication services using different userequipment profiles.” This application and '846 claim priority underU.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional patent application 62/335,393(“'393”) entitled “Method and system for providing high volume highbandwitch [sic] communications wireless communications services acrossmany mobile network operators,” which was filed May 12, 2016. The '846and '393 applications are both incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

FIELD

The field relates, generally, to telematics devices and systems, andother wireless devices and systems, and methods for delivering highvolume, high bandwidth wireless data connectivity to consumers acrossmultiple mobile network operators using a single wireless communicationsradio (cellular module) without requiring multiple front-ends, filters,amplifiers and antennas to support dual SIM operations, while allowingdual active operation on two subscriptions simultaneously.

INTRODUCTION AND PRINCIPLES

Telematics may refer to the integrated use of telecommunications devicesand systems and information storage, usage, transmitting, receiving, andprocessing. More simply, telematics may refer to sending, receiving andstoring, information via telecommunication devices. Telematics devicesand system have been applied alongside Global Positioning System (“GPS”)technology integrated with computers and mobile communicationstechnology in automotive information and navigation systems.

Other than the convergence of telecommunications and informationprocessing, the term telematics may also refer to automation of variousprocesses relating to the driving and using of automobiles. For example,a telematics system can report emergency situations to a telematicsservice provider's central location via a voice telephone call over awireless communications network, or a message sent electronically over anetwork, including a wireless communications network and the Internet.Telematics also includes services such as GPS navigation, integratedhands-free cellular telephony, wireless safety communications, andautomatic driving assistance and information systems such as traffic,restaurant, fuel, and emissions information. IEEE standard 802.11prefers to Wireless Access for the Vehicular Environment to facilitateand enhance Intelligent Transportation.

A telematics services provider (“TSP”) typically operates a call centerstaffed with live operators who respond to emergency calls and tocontact the appropriate responders to the emergency; the live operatorsalso typically perform customer service tasks during real-timeconversations with a user/subscriber, or with subscribers-to-be as theyregister their telematics device for service. The TSP also typically hasa telecommunications operations center (“TOC”), which typically includesa computer servers and other networking equipment to connect the serverwith various networks such as the Internet. A telematics control unit(“TCU”) installed in a vehicle, either at the time of manufacture, orafter the vehicle was placed in service, typically contains a GPSportion (which portion may be referred to as a GPS circuit or a GPSmodule), a cellular telephony portion (which may be referred to as acellular, or long range wireless, portion, circuit, or module), andgeneral computer electronics such as a memory, a general processor, I/Ointerface, etc., which are coupled to the GPS portion and to thecellular portion.

A subscriber typically pays a monthly service charge to the TSP. The TSPestablishes and maintains a wireless service subscription with thewireless carrier, such as a cellular telephone service provider, so thatthe TCU can communicate with the TOC via wireless and Internet. Thisconnection can also facilitate Internet availability and functionalityfor a subscriber in the vehicle thru the TCU. In addition, Internetconnectivity facilitates a subscriber transmitting and receivinginformation between car and a personal computer, smart phone or tabletor other computer device connected to the Internet.

A TSP typically establishes an account with a long-range wirelesscarrier, such as AT&T or Verizon, (the establishing of an account may bereferred to as activating or provisioning a wireless account) so that aTCU can communicate across the wireless carrier's wireless (typicallycellular) network. After a TCU has been installed in a vehicle, thevehicle's manufacturer, or the retail dealer selling the vehicle,typically obtains a unique identifier of the TCU, the vehicle's VehicleIdentification Number (“VIN”), a unique identifier corresponding to thewireless telephony portion of the TCU, and the vehicle owner's name andforwards the identifiers and vehicle owner's name to the TSP. The uniqueidentifier of the wireless telephony portion typically includes anInternational Mobile Subscriber Identity (“IMSI”) and/or IntegratedCircuit Card ID (“ICCID”) for mobile network access devices using GSM,UMTS, or LTE wireless technology. The TSP may manually obtain the mobileunit's unique identifier and manually forward it to a wireless carriervia a voice telephone call, or completing form and mailing, or sendingvia facsimile or e-mail, to the wireless carrier. The TSP mayelectronically communicate with the wireless carrier using a predefinedApplication Programming Interface (“API”) to activate wireless service.The wireless service provider typically begins billing the TSP forwireless service for the specific activated account upon activating thewireless portion of the TCU for wireless service. The TSP typicallybegins billing the vehicle owner/subscriber for telematics services uponreceiving payment information from the vehicle owner.

In past subscription models, a vehicle may have been provided to thenew-vehicle-owner without prepaid service (i.e., without having beenseparately paid for by the new-vehicle-owner), but with the telematicsservices provided on a trial basis for a period of time after thepurchase of the vehicle. For one-way services like Automatic CrashNotification (“ACN”) or Emergency Calling (“ECALL”), telematics serviceproviders did not necessarily need customer information and customerscould enjoy such ‘Safety and Security’ services without providingcustomer specific information until the trial period ended. If thenew-vehicle-owner, or customer, chose to subscribe to additionalservices, (i.e., Internet Hotspot or Streaming Audio) it was up to thecustomer to establish contact with the telematics service provider andagree upon a method for payment for the service period extension.

High volume data services, such as video or audio streaming, webbrowsing, document and file downloading, and the like, are beyond thescope of services that may be offered by vehicle original equipmentmanufacturers (“OEM”) and TSPs alike, but OEMs want to add suchcapability to the vehicle. Customers like the flexibility of an in-carconnection, but don't necessarily want “yet another subscription”.Customers want the ability to use data from their existing rate plan“data bucket”, but until the herein disclosed solution, logisticalchallenges made this impossible.

A designated and OEM-selected wireless operator provides existingtelematics connectivity services. This arrangement means that allservices, whether it is low volume diagnostic services, firmwarereflashing, or remote control services like remote door unlock orvehicle pre-conditioning, (otherwise known as “Vehicle CentricServices”) are typically provided by a single wireless operator. Allcommunications to and from the vehicle use a single virtual pipe to thelocal serving wireless network operator's towers, through his packetcore and then to the GSM Roaming Exchange or the IP Roaming Exchange.The GRX and the IPX are different names for an Inter-Operator IP networkthat allows mobile devices operating outside of their designated homenetwork to reach back to the home network.

Roaming on third party Radio Access Networks (“RAN”) allows a mobiledevice to have a wider coverage area than a single operator couldnormally provide allowing nearly ubiquitous coverage. Normally a singlewireless operator provides service to subscribers through a combinationof “home (or local, owned) networks” and some third party “roamingnetworks,” sometimes even within the same geographical market area.These extensions to the RAN allow a network operator to provide a muchlarger virtual network than could normally be afforded. When a mobiledevice travels outside of the network of the network operator providingthe service subscription, the network operator providing the subscribersubscription must compensate the third party network operator forairtime and data usage. The charges for the usage off of the homenetwork are usually considered premium charges and if they are premiumcharges, they are billed over and above the normal monthly feesassociated with the basic subscription.

Network operators usually assemble a set of third party wirelessoperator's networks to augment their basic “home” network. The “home”network normally refers to the RAN where normal operations are notconsidered premium services. Although any operator and RAN, whether homeor roaming can charge usage fees based solely on consumption, the termpremium generally refers to services that are outside of the normalsubscription plan and rates. Home charges are based on normal home ratesand roaming charges are based on premium charges over and above thenormal home subscription plan and rates.

Normal subscriptions in the home network are based on the wirelesscustomer purchasing a preset amount of airtime or wireless data at aspecific price. The price might be 1000 minutes of airtime [MOA] for $10or it might be 1 Gigabyte [GB] of data for $10. Most rate plans arebased on the customer purchasing a set amount of data and minutes ofairtime in anticipation of the customer using that amount of data overthe purchase period, for example, 1000 minutes of airtime and 5 GB ofdata for $60 for one month. If the customer uses more airtime or bytesof data, the customer will pay overage charges for usage. In addition tothe base $60, if the customer travels to a market that is not part ofthe home network, the customer will pay charges, known as roaming feesto the home network operator for the airtime or data usage in theroaming market. Typically the roaming fees are based completely on usageand the price is usually significantly higher than the basic airtime anddata prices in the home market.

As the wireless data consumption and minutes-of-use have increased bycustomers and as more customers get additional devices that consumedata, wireless operators have reciprocated by offering bigger packagesof data and perceptually lower prices. When a wireless customerpurchases a tablet or notebook equipped with mobile wireless dataservices, the customer might purchase a bigger data plan, perhaps 10 GBof data for $80 to support both the smartphone and tablet. Theperception of data at $8 per GB is better for the customer, while thewireless operator realizes that the $80 package is higher revenue percustomer, but not necessarily 5 GB of additional usage by the customerbecause the customer now may use his tablet for reading his email thathe otherwise might have read on his smartphone. The customer is happywith his lower monthly cost per GB while the operator is happy becausehe has greater revenues but not necessarily greater usage.

Because of the specific overage fees and rate plans, the wirelessoperator conditions his wireless customers to maintain a rate plan thatoffers more data (sometimes significantly more data) than the individualwireless customer normally consumes. If a customer ever exceeds hisallotted rate plan, most wireless operators almost punitively chargethat customer for his extra usage. This strategy creates a dynamic wherethe fear of excessive and unpredictable usage charges for small overagesencourages wireless customers to “over subscribe” to data. In the end,for each separate account, wireless customers normally over subscribe tofar more data than they will ever use.

The wireless operators understand and manage the customers' fear ofoverage charges. It is this fear of overage charges that keep thedynamic working for the operator. The typical customer purchases morethan enough extra data and uses only a fraction of it. From anoperator's perspective, this is called “breakage”. If a customer buystwice as much data as he uses, the effective price is two times theapparent price. From a customer's perspective, if he is able to addmultiple devices to his rate plan, this limits the breakage to that of asingle rate plan. From an operator's perspective, more devices drivemore usage and more GB overall sold to that particular customer. More GBof usage means perhaps a larger “bucket” of data with a larger cushionthat the customer is willing to buy. It means that the customer is lesslikely to shift his account if he has multiple devices that are part ofthe same plan. Customers readily add new devices for a small sum ofextra money, typically $10 per device. Everybody wins.

The desire to add new devices to multiple-device data plans is verystrong. Its success has been established in the marketplace. For costconscious customers though, connected cars currently are just anothersubscription and usually not as low as another device. Unfortunatelywith the methods that have been offered by the wireless operators andadopted by the automobile OEMs [AOEM], it is nearly impossible for avehicle owner to add a new vehicle to an existing multiple-device dataplan. The automobile OEM chooses the wireless operator. Normally theautomobile OEM chooses a large operator with a likelihood of having asmany native networks, and the largest geographic footprint as possibleto minimize operating costs by minimizing usage on third-party networks.That means that the OEM will generally select one of 5 or 6 differentoperators worldwide.

Once the OEM has selected the wireless network operator, due to 3GPPdesign limitations, until recently, all network traffic originated orterminated in that wireless operator's network. More specifically, thewireless traffic originated and terminated in one or two countries. Alldata usage traversed the IPX/GRX networks back to the home network ofthe selected wireless network operator who provided the SIM. GSMA and3GPP have anticipated the global roaming needs of such devices thatinclude automobile telematics and have specified local breakoutmechanisms. Local breakout mechanisms are part of the Forth Generation4G network architecture, but still don't necessarily solve the problem.Even though the traffic is routed directly to the local Internet in avisited country, roaming traffic is still roaming and the local operatorwho owns the RAN charges the home operator for the data usage.

Modern telematics devices usually carry two types data of traffic. Sometraffic, for example diagnostics and firmware reflashing is carried onbehalf of the OEM and the remainder of the traffic is carried on behalfof the driver of the car. Similar to the local breakout needs, GSMA and3GPP anticipated the need to two or more responsible parties for payingfor network data traffic. Split billing methods have been on the roadmapfor years. Unfortunately the consuming public has changed as rapidly asthe wireless network systems have been developed. In the past where itmight have been acceptable to offer an additional data plan for one'sautomobile, today, that is far from desirable in most markets,especially given the other competing solutions.

One recent development in this space is the eSIM. The eSIM is aSubscriber Identity Module that allows “over-the-air” personalization.Specifically, the eSIM allows a wireless operator or “subscriptionmanager” to push the profile for a new wireless network over-the-air.Practically it removes the need to install a new “removable” SIM everytime the subscription changes from one wireless network operator to thenext. The eSIM has been considered a major boon to offering the consumera local combined billing solution (meaning the consumer can combine histelematics data usage with his smartphone data usage). It is envisionedthat an OEM or TSP can “push” a profile of wireless operator of thevehicle owner's own choosing into the vehicle and the vehicle owner cancombine the bill for his personal data services in the vehicle with thedata he consumes from his other devices. The diagnostic and reflashingservices could be split out and billed separately, and directly to theOEM.

In places like Europe, where the vehicles are sold in every country, itis nearly impossible for the OEM to establish direct wireless operatorrelationships to placate every possible customer. With 30 countries and3 or more operators per country, the list is long. An industryconsortium is possible but it will be a challenge. One overlooked aspectof this solution is that although the OEM is able to push a new SIMprofile to the vehicle, somehow, that OEM must also provision the newSIM profile into the business and operations systems that enable thesubscription and billing for the new customer. Wireless operators areloath to allow outsiders and third parties access to the “keys to theirkingdom”. Privacy rules make it tricky as well.

A second overlooked aspect of the eSIM technology is the need forvehicle centric services like diagnostic and reflashing services. Thereis a strong need for services like battery charge status that “reach outto the vehicle”. Without a central connection, these services becomeinsecure and difficult to manage. Once a new profile is pushed into aneSIM in a telematics unit, the OEM must actively manage the connectionbecause without the connection, the OEM will loose the significantstrategic value of having the car connected in the first place.

Roaming prices in markets outside of the home market have remained asignificant topic of discussion. In Europe, for example, a wirelessconsumer can easily purchase wireless data at less than $5 per GB.However, that same consumer will pay at least $50 per GB for dataoutside his home market. Roaming has been a traditional cash cow fornetwork operators throughout the world. Regulations in Europe attempt toforce the free market system to encourage customers to use their phonesoutside of their home markets. According to some statistics, 80% of allusers turn their data function off while roaming. EU regulations haveattempted to eliminate roaming charges and these regulations havereceived great resistance from network operators there. Although the newregulations will take affect soon, they don't solve the completeproblem. The roaming rates will only apply to consumer devices (perhapsan automobile will apply) and significant limitations will apply toblock enterprising customers from signing up for service with the lowestprice operator in a market foreign to the customer's own market.

The future of the connected car industry is questionable if oneconsiders the upcoming regulations. Will all operators allow theautomobile to be part of a consumer rate plan for the purposes of theroaming costs and regulation or will the operators consider theautomobile part of the business and industrial market since the SIMsubscription is most likely part of an OEM's consolidated fleet plan?

Current systems all fit neatly into one of several types of systems:

-   -   1. Complete Roaming Environment: In this type of system, the OEM        contracts with a single “prime” wireless operator and the prime        operator creates roaming relationships with “local” operators in        each market. The local operator has a defined price per minute        of use and per Megabyte [MB] of data. All airtime and data usage        is billed by the local to the prime operator through inter        operator rates set either for all customers or for the specific        OEM contract. The prime operator bills the OEM for a monthly        reoccurring charge and the airtime and data usage rates. The        local operator typically receives no monthly reoccurring charge        for devices that don't use airtime and data. Typically the rates        are higher because the local operator does not receive monthly        compensation.    -   2. Roaming SIM for Low Volume and Native Local SIM for High        Volume: This is a hybrid model where all devices that consume        only a small amount of vehicle centric data, for example        diagnostics, firmware reflashing and limited remote control,        remain in a complete roaming environment as described above. If        the vehicle operator consumes more than a small amount of data,        particularly for customer facing services, for example wireless        hotspot or streaming audio, the prime operator may contract with        a single local operator to purchase a local profile and the        prime operator may utilize eSIM technology and re-IMSI the        wireless device and operate the vehicle as a local device in the        specific country or market where the vehicle is domiciled. The        local operator bills the prime operator for the monthly        reoccurring SIM charge and the airtime charges used by the SIM.        The local operator will bill the prime operator for all airtime        and data usage by the low volume roaming devices. The local        operator usually sells high volume data at a much lower price        per GB because the local operator also receives a monthly        reoccurring charge for the SIM and the local operator now has        ultimate control of the SIM.    -   3. Native Local SIM for all devices: This model is one where a        single mobile virtual network operator [MVNO] operates as a        prime MNO and aggregates the SIM profile and services for many        local operators within a region. Each local operator provides        the prime with a block of SIM profiles and the prime MVNO uses        eSIM technology to re-IMSI the SIM to from the “anchor” profile        to a local profile when the vehicle is sold to a specific        customer and the domicile is determined. Each local network        operator bills the prime MVNO for monthly reoccurring charges as        well as airtime and data usage. This solution is successful if        individual airtime or data usage is high enough to offset the        higher monthly reoccurring charges. The MVNO must have MVNO        agreements with each operator in each country and must operate a        provisioning system that supports each of the local network        operator's provision API's.

Each of the above systems is workable in it's own right. Each hasaspects that are advantageous to each of the others. One outstandingthing for each is that the above systems have a single point of contactfor the AOEM. The “Prime” mobile operator manages all wireless SIMs andwireless service. This should be the function of the wireless operatorsand it should be well understood by the prime operator. An alternativeto the above model is for the AOEM or device maker to contract withindependent operators in each operating area or country and arrange forwireless services. However, each of the above methods misses oneimportant aspect, and that is that a direct customer relationship ismost likely necessary to provide high volume, high bandwidth dataconnectivity for customer facing services. (That is unless the AOEM orservice provider decides to pay for all data consumed by the vehicleoperators . . . an unlikely scenario.)

The solutions that exist in the market today fit neatly into thecategories previously described. In each case, an entity must manage therelationship between the wireless operators who provide the RAN, theAOEM and possibly the end customer. Both the AOEM and the managingentity have visions of massive subscriptions and massive profit marginson the backs of the local serving wireless operators that have investedthe capital in building the RAN. Further, the poor customer is meanwhileexpected to subscribe to yet another bucket of data at inflated prices.Most likely, the automobile owner/operator has to create a new accountwith a new entity and in markets like Canada and Europe, that new entitymight not even be a local entity. Never mind that the local wirelessoperator may be selling against himself by offering significantdiscounts to the AOEM or the managing entity, while that entity sells tothe local customer.

In view of the aforementioned difficulties of operating the traditionaltelematics system using wireless services with existing business rules,a new system and method has been designed and deployed to provide highvolume, high bandwidth service to telematics customers in order toinsure long-term success. One of the most important aspects of the newsystem is the ability for the automobile owner/operator to include thepurchase of airtime and/or data from his existing wireless provider. Thecustomer's existing (local) wireless provider can provide the bestcustomer service and the best prices without the extra middlemen in theequation.

From a technology perspective, the simplest solution is the solutionthat has been deployed in vehicles from several OEMs in Europe foryears. The solution involves a SIM card slot on the dashboard. As simpleas this solution sounds, it has its challenges, especially for thediagnostics, firmware reflashing and remote control. Although theremovable SIM, whether supplied by the customer, the local dealer, thedistributor or OEM can work, and has worked in some situations in thepast, from the security aspect, it is a non-starter for services thatinvolve the OEM or TSP reaching out to the vehicles (vehicleterminated). Any vehicle-terminated traffic would be significantlychallenged with security issues with a consumer SIM operating on what iseffectively the open Internet. From the aspect of the consumer, andconsumer facing services, the SIM slot on the dashboard is the bestsolution to the problem as it allows the customer to decide who providesthe outgoing connectivity to the vehicle for consumer facing services.It two different telematics communications radios are installed in thevehicle to solve the vehicle-terminated and security problems, from aresource utilization perspective, the solution is almost a completelooser, especially for the customer who has to purchase at AOEM markup,two different telematics communications radios (cellphones) andassociated hardware like antenna feed line and antennas. Not only doesthe customer have to purchase the additional hardware, the customer hasto pay for the decreased fuel economy due to the extra weight of thesecond set of hardware.

The AOEM has a belief that if a single radio solution is to beconsidered acceptable, and the SIM card of the telematics unit is to beprogrammable and adaptable to wireless operators in every market, thenthis is the ideal solution. And it may be acceptable to some portion ofthe customers who are willing to subscribe to a new wireless servicewith a new “bucket of data.” However, it may not be acceptable to allcustomers.

Aspects disclosed herein combine multiple solutions, but focus on aconcept and an a corresponding technical system that supports theconcept. Local wireless operator participation in the consumer portionof the wireless usage is a part of the concept. An automobile OEMselects an “anchor” wireless supplier, and much like the “prime”operator described in solution 1 above, the anchor operator manages therelationship with the AOEM for all vehicle centric traffic. The anchoroperator provides the “evolved packet core” or GGSN for all vehiclecentric traffic. The anchor operator provides the Home Subscriber Server[HSS] that contains the IMSI used for vehicle centric traffic and theauthentication center containing the subscriber key for vehicle centrictraffic. The anchor operator provides basic roaming service throughroaming agreements with local wireless network operators for all vehiclecentric traffic. Preferably, the roaming agreements will be with allpossible available operators operating in a given service area. Theanchor operator provides the OTA system to update the “Public LandMobile Network” [PLMN] roaming list in the SIM. The anchor mobilenetwork provides the SIM management platform to configure and download asecond SIM profile for customer facing traffic.

A central aspect disclosed herein is specific device technology thatsupports multiple LTE profiles on a single hardware user equipmentdevice platform, such as a cellphone/smartphone platform, utilizing asingle radio transceiver, with a single RF front end and associatedfilters, amplifiers, and antenna. The single radio transceiverconfiguration cooperates with a management gateway that allows the AOEMand Operator partners (as well as the anchor operator) to jointly managethe two or more SIM profiles. In existing wireless network operations, asingle-SIM-profile-per-radio-transceiver is carefully managed andcontrolled by a single entity, a single wireless operator, or its agentson behalf of that single operator. In the case of an anchor operator,heretofore the single-SIM-per-radio-transceiver is managed by, and onlyby, the anchor or through management mechanisms delegated directly tothe AOEM or the TSP. Even multi-tenant management platforms as providedby, for example, Jasper Technologies, Inc. (which is now owned by CiscoSystems, Inc.), clearly segregate different operators' devices and SIMmanagement functions. In a multi-tenant environment, if an OEM hasrelationships with multiple wireless operators, each wireless operatorhas his own ICCID/IMSI (and hence SIM card) managed by the platform andthe management is not holistic; instead, management of differentoperators' devices is clearly segregated between the differentoperators. One wireless operator does not manage the SIMs of anotherwireless operator in a multi-tenant environment, such as facilitated bythe Jasper platform.

A second differentiating aspect disclosed herein involves cooperationwith the management gateway in providing localized service. In solutionscurrently envisioned by the industry, a local ICCID/IMSI is installedusing eSIM or similar technology in the SIM card if locally managedservice is required. This provides the local management and localservice aspect of the connectivity services. Aspects disclosed hereinuse a two-operators' ICCID/IMSI throughout the life of a deviceswireless service, much like that of solution 2 above, but these twooperate in a new way on a single radio transceiver.

Wireless data and voice traffic is carefully managed in existingwireless networks. Various methods are established by the “ThirdGeneration Partnership Project” [3GPP], a world-wide network operatorconsortium that establishes methods and standards and requirements forwireless network operation. Those methods may or may not be fullydeployed by wireless network operators that own and operate the localRAN and provide local wireless services to consumers. 3GPP from atechnical network operating perspective has defined operating methodsand processes that aspects disclosed herein utilizes along with thenewly disclosed management gateway that does not conflict with 3GPPstandards.

The management gateway aspect disclosed herein specifically defines,supports, and facilitates new technology that is part of the “OperationsSupport System” and “Business Support System” OSS/BSS that operates thepart of the network that facilitates network services for wirelessdevices. This gateway has an interface on one side that faces multipleother third party wireless network operator partners. In a typicalscenario, the partners, specifically, are the local operators thatprovide the local component of service to the end customer(consumer/vehicle owner/driver). The partner interface provides both anapplication programming interface (“API”) and web services (“HTML”)interface for management of an aspect of wireless service. The partnerinterface facilitates controlling operation of wireless devices withrespect to enabling customer-facing service. If a wireless device iscompletely disabled, meaning it has no wireless service or dataconnectivity for either vehicle centric service or customer-facingservice, this interface can enable the SIM and enable basic service thatallows for customer-facing service, not vehicle-centric portion of theservice. If the wireless device already has basic service for vehiclecentric services, the interface can enable the additionalcustomer-facing service, in addition to the existing vehicle-centricservice that is already there.

The management gateway has an interface for B2B customers. Specifically,the management gateway has an interface for automakers and/or TSPs. Theinterface includes an API and HTML interface for management of anotheraspect of wireless service. Unlike the partner interface described inthe previous paragraph, the B2B interface allows users (i.e., employeesof automaker OEMs or telematics services providers) to enable anddisable connectivity for vehicle-centric services for a specific devicethat has a specific SIM card (or specific virtual SIM). The B2Binterface is used to enable connectivity for vehicle centric telematicsservices that use typically small amounts of data, for examplediagnostics firmware reflashing or remote control operations. The B2Binterface facilitates users to control connectivity that is normally(but not necessarily) paid for by the OEM or TSP in conjunction with theairtime and data usage for all vehicles in a designated fleet. Vehiclecentric services would normally (but not necessarily) be carried throughthe IPX/GRX network from the local network operator Serving Gateway(SGW) to the anchor operator's Packet Gateway (PGW) that provides an SGiinterface to the Automaker/TSP. Similar to the Partner interface, theB2B interface may be used to enable basic wireless connectivity andconnectivity to an access point name (“APN”) designated by an anchor MNOfor vehicle-centric services data traffic. If the wireless device has noservice, the wireless device SIM would typically be enabled by using theprofile of the AOEM's contracted MNO. If the SIM already hascustomer-facing services that were enabled using the profile of an MNOthat was chosen by a customer/end-user to provide his, or her, personalwireless data service, the SIM would be further enabled for the AOEM'sMNO profile and the APN designated by the mobile network operator forvehicle centric services. In the case of disabling, if the SIM is notrequired to provide high volume, high bandwidth (“HVHB”) customer-facingservices, then the SIM can be completely disabled by the B2B interface.If the SIM is used to access HVHB services then only the AOEM's MNOprofile, APN, and connectivity facilitators to the APN for vehiclecentric services may be disabled.

The management gateway interfaces enable the mobile device using 3GPPstandard methods for enabling a SIM card, including using a provisioningconnection to the HLR or Home Subscriber Server [HSS] and the Policy andCharging Rules Function[PCRF] [3GPP Network Elements] of a home MNOcorresponding to the SIM. The management gateway would normally, but notnecessarily, only activate the HLR/HSS/network elements of the MNO thatis contracted by the AOEM. The management gateway interfaces disable amobile device using 3GPP standard methods for disabling a SIM cardincluding a provisioning connection to the HLR or HSS and PCRF.Provisioning a device entails many steps that each may enable or disablesome functionality of a user equipment device. For example, it ispossible to enable voice service without enabling data service, or it ispossible to enable data service only in designated markets. It ispossible to provision a device with standard 3GPP Network Elements tooperate in some markets and not others. It is possible to provision 3GPPNetwork Elements to the Home PCRF (“H-PCRF”) that further transmits thepolicies of the H-PCRF to the Visited PCRF (“V-PCRF”). The V-PCRFfurther transmits the policies of the V-PCRF to an enforcement functionknow as a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (“PCEF”). The PCEF isa 3GPP Network Element, or function block, within, or associated with,an LTE PGW. Heretofore, a specific SIM is normally and strictly managedby a single network operator (or its designee), and that is the singlenetwork operator that provides the SIM.

Privileges of each API or HTML interface should be understood. Each ofthe partner interface and the B2B interface confer special privileges toan actor who has access to the given interface. If the actor is anemployee of a partner MNO, the partner API or HTML interface can be usedto enable or disable functionality for high volume, high bandwidth datain a specific market or multiple markets. This data is segregatedspecifically by the functionality embedded within the wireless devicethat uses a two-or-more-SIM-profiles arrangement, either contained in asingle physical SIM device or contained in one or more physical SIMdevices, and routes IP traffic to a specific endpoint in the wirelessnetwork. This routing would be controlled preferably according to APN,but alternately it could be controlled by IP address, URI, URL, portnumber, or any other embedded tag contained in the IP record and itcould include wrapping the IP packets with IP security methods similarto IPsec. Preferably when the partner MNO enables high volume, highbandwidth data for a device using multi-profiles/multi-identities, itroutes traffic through a local PGW owned and operated by the partner.This is known in the 3GPP world as “local breakout.”

If the actor accesses the API or HTML interface using the B2B interface,an additional set of functionality is granted to the wireless device.Vehicle-centric services like traffic that transports: vehiclediagnostics information, firmware reflashing, remote control messaging,or any other data relative to the vehicle itself, is segregated from thehigh volume, high bandwidth customer-facing data using the functionalityas described above. This IP data is routed preferably to a differentendpoint than the high volume, high bandwidth data described above. Thisendpoint routing is controlled preferably according to APN, butalternatively endpoint routing may be controlled by IP address, URI,URL, port number, or any other embedded tag contained in the IP record,and endpoint routing may include wrapping the IP packets with the IPsecurity methods similar to IPsec.

Each interface on the management gateway preferably works as an “or”function with the overall enablement of the wireless device and SIM. Ifeither interface has been specified to enable data, whether it is forcustomer facing high volume, high bandwidth Internet connectivity orwhether it is for the OEM enabled services like diagnostics, firmwarereflashing, and remote control or similar services, the wireless deviceand SIM has been configured with at least one, but potentially more SIMprofiles, and is allowed to register on at least one MNO networksomewhere. A SIM may be configured to operate on only one network, itmay be configured to operate on a group of networks, or it may beconfigured to operate on all possible networks that are accessible. Thesecond aspect of the enablement function is the access privilegesgranted. A SIM may be enabled for a limited set of services, perhapsvoice only or data only, and/or it may be enabled for a broader set ofservices. A SIM may be configured to allow access only to a singlenetwork with a single service, perhaps data only on one mobile networkoperator's RAN, as identified by the Mobile Country Code (“MCC”) andMobile Network Code that compose an IMSI (“MNC”).

The management gateway also preferably controls a subscriptionmanagement platform; known specifically as an SM-DP (“SubscriptionManager Data Preparation”) in GSMA's Remote Provisioning Architecturefor Embedded UICC Technical Specification, Version 3.1, 27 May 2016. TheSM-DP is a platform and part of a system designed to re-credential anactive SIM subscription. Simplistically described, the SM-DP can deliversubscriber identities/profiles over-the-air to electronically swap SIMprofiles between one single active profile and another single activeprofile in the same device. Generally, but not exclusively, SIM profilesare stored in a user equipment device by mechanisms such as, forexample, an eSIM, an Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card [eUICC],a SIM, a UICC, or a virtualized SIM. Currently, in a user equipmentdevice there may be one or more SIM profiles stored in the userequipment device, with a single SIM profile, corresponding to a singleMNO subscription, active at a time. An aspect disclosed herein allowstwo or more active SIM profiles, with subscriptions from more than oneMNO, to be active simultaneously.

The management gateway also preferably (and optionally) controls anetwork based “Preferred Public Land Mobile Network List Generator”(“P-PLMN-LG”). The P-PLMN-LG generates specific PLMN selection androaming lists to steer the mobile device to specific networks accordingto a predetermined priority. Preferably, the mobile device contains aPLMN list within the SIM card (or other form of storing subscriberidentities and corresponding subscriber profiles whether virtual orphysical), that manages the selection of PLMNs according to the priorityorder. The highest priority PLMN that is available and allowable when aselection is being made by a user equipment device is selected asdescribed in 3GPP TS 23.122. Although use of PLMN lists, the creation ofPLMN lists, and updating of PLMN lists in wireless devices issubstantially standardized among wireless operators; aspects disclosedherein utilize such methods of creating PLMN list, but with a uniquetwist.

Conventionally, an operator creates and updates a very limited PLMN listand provides that list to nearly every customer in a specific fleet ofuser equipment devices. For example, some operators load a very specificlist of networks for domestic roaming within a country and outside ofthe country, only contracted-with partners are typically listed, andoperators who charge high roaming rates may be specifically excluded.Because of device-constraint-limitations of the roaming list size andthe operator scanning complexity, limited PLMN lists are typically sentto subscribers. A user equipment device itself has some ability to marknetworks as unacceptable networks if the network regularly blocks accessby the wireless device.

For a specific telematics solution (i.e., device centric, orvehicle-centric, low bandwidth data service flows), a PLMN list could beconfigured to operate on one or more specific operators while excludingundesirable operators. This list could be considered the “standardtelematics preferred PLMN list.” If a partner accesses the partnerinterface on the management gateway and enables service for high volume,high bandwidth services for a specific customer for a specific market ormarkets, the management gateway may instruct the P-PLMN-LG to generate aspecific PLMN selection and roaming list to specifically enable thewireless user equipment device's scanning function to select thespecific MCC and MNC of the specific markets enabled by the partner.

This enablement could be done using one of several mechanisms containedwithin the SIM and wireless device and also in conjunction with othernetwork elements in the wireless network. One way to use the SIM toenable operation on a specific network is to place the partneroperator's MCC and MNC in a Home PLMN list (“HPLMN”) or in an EquivalentHome PLMN list (“EHPLMN”). Whenever the target MCC and MNC is available,it is typically selected if this method is used. Another method is toplace another operators' MCC/MNC within the same footprint in theforbidden list (in some installations it actually may be the converseand the systems competing with the partner may have not have theirMCC/MNC in the allowed list) within the HLR/HSS database so that when awireless device attempts to access the forbidden competing PLMN, thewireless-network response to the registration blocks access with a “PLMNnot allowed” response. This automatically results in placement of thePLMN in the “forbidden PLMN” list on the SIM card. Another method toblock unwanted access is respond with “No Suitable Cells in LocationArea” which places Location Area (“LA”) in the PLMN's list of forbiddenLA's for roaming purposes, which causes the MS user equipment device tolook for an LA that is not in the forbidden LA list.

As described herein, the unique twist introduced above is that thewireless transceiver of a user equipment device may have twopersonalities, corresponding to two identifiers, such as IMSIs, but onlyone long range wireless radio (i.e., only one radio for accessing an LTEnetwork). In an example scenario, a first personality assigned to thewireless transceiver is the SIM profile belonging to the MNO selected bythe AOEM for providing vehicle-centric service that typically only uselow volume and low bandwidth wireless resources. As long as this profileis the only operating profile, the wireless transceiver's operation iscontrolled by network elements operated by, or on behalf of, the MNOthat provided the initial contracted subscription to the AOEM. Typicallythis SIM profile is the default operating SIM profile for B2B low volumemachine-to-machine (“M2M”) services and the profile should (but notrequired to) have M2M roaming service on nearly every possible MNO RANoperating within the normal service-delivery-footprint of the AOEM.While the wireless device has only low volume wireless service, i.e.,just standard telematics services or remote control, diagnostics, orreflashing (in other words, vehicle-centric services), the MNO thatprovided the low volume low bandwidth SIM profile controls roaming usingstandard techniques familiar with 3GPP operators. That is, the wirelessdevice can roam on any network at the convenience and permission of theAOEM's selected MNO. The selection can be based on price, coverage,company affiliation, or partnership affiliation, or any other reason.

If a user or customer desires HVHB services that are outside of thescope of the normal low-volume telematics services included in theAOEM's telematics subscription, then the customer subscribes to a retaildata plan with a local MNO of the customer's choosing. The local MNOassigns a local SIM profile to the wireless device. This SIM profile isassigned using the partner web interface or APIs and it causes themanagement gateway to manipulate a Subscription Manager Data Preparationplatform. The result of the manipulation is to assign a local MNO SIMprofile as a “second” profile of the wireless device. The second profileis pushed to the second SIM, or preferably to a second profile locationin the eSIM/eUICC of the device, such as a telematics device built intoa vehicle, or a user's personal smartphone user equipment device thatperforms functions of a telematics device while the user travels withthe smart phone is his or her vehicle. The subscription manager SM-DPdelivers the new profile to a Subscription Manager Secure Router SM-SRfor delivery directly to the wireless device.

Instead of disabling the initial profile, which may be referred toherein as the ‘anchor MNO profile’ (“AMP”) AMP, or ‘first profile,’ andsubsequently ‘enabling’ a ‘second profile’ that may have been recentlydownloaded to the wireless device and SIM card, aspects herein ‘enable’the second profile in a special way without ‘disabling’ the firstprofile to support operation of two active profiles simultaneously.

Multiple profile wireless devices have been contemplated, designed,manufactured and sold for many years. Each is generally classifiedaccording to the complexity of the handset. One lower-cost option iscalled Dual SIM, Dual Standby (“DSDS”). Another more complex solution iscalled Dual SIM, Dual Active or (“DSDA”). In wireless devices thatinclude only one transceiver, only one of the two subscriptions(corresponding to one of two SIM profiles) may be transmitting orreceiving radio frequency (“RF”) signals at a given time; these devicesare referred to as Dual SIM, Dual Standby devices, because while onesubscription is actively transmitting or receiving the othersubscription is put on standby. In contrast, in wireless devices thatinclude two transceivers and two SIM cards, the device is referred to asDual SIM, Dual Active because both subscriptions may be activelytransmitting or receiving at the same time, each using one of the twotransceivers.

Aspects of the management system described herein support simultaneoussubscription operation on a single RAT by using the same radio accesstechnology and spectrum band for both subscriptions that are operatingsimultaneously. In other words, aspects disclosed herein manageoperation of each of a plurality of profiles and subscriptions such thatthat the user equipment device that contains the multiple profiles andsubscriptions operates on the same base station for each subscriptionsimultaneously.

Access control of the wireless device preferably can be controlledthrough the use of a few different network elements. As mentioned above,the HLR/HSS is a network element that provides ultimate permission for adevice to have some wireless functionality in a specific wirelessmarket. Standard 3GPP network roaming methods are not suppressed, butunconventionally, the retail customer's profile (i.e., theaforementioned ‘second’ profile in the user equipment device, which inthe telematics scenario may be a device installed into a vehicle duringmanufacture, or may be a user's personal user equipment device thatcouples to a device of a vehicle) becomes the prevailing profile in theuser equipment device. Thus, the SIM subscription provided by the localMNO providing the retail subscription services becomes the dominantsubscription in the user equipment device. The PLMN list controlled by,and provided by, the local MNO providing the retail subscription is thePLMN list selected as the operational PLMN list in the user equipmentdevice. Selection of a network to use while roaming outside of theretail customer's ‘home’ market is normally (but not necessarily always)done according to the PLMN list stored in the user equipment device.Thus, the ‘first’ subscription of the SIM, the subscription provided bythe MNO that is chosen by the AOEM, becomes the recessive SIMsubscription. Wherever the dominant SIM subscription operates, therecessive SIM subscription will operate.

In order to manage two different classes of service on a singleoperator's network, a different SIM subscription and APN is preferablyassigned to low volume service than the SIM subscription and APNassigned for high volume service. Access by a user equipment device forlow volume service uses one global APN that will preferably route dataaccess from the SGW in the roaming market networks (roaming with respectto the first recessive SIM subscription and corresponding recessive MNO)to the PGW of the MNO holding the subscription contract for AOEMservices. If low volume services are enabled for a specific wirelessdevice and a specific SIM, then the APN for the endpoint in the AOEMMNO's PGW is specified in the HLR/HSS subscriber record of that MNO. Iflow volume services are disabled for a specific wireless device and aspecific SIM, then the APN for the endpoint in the anchor operator's PGWis not specified in the HLR/HSS subscriber record. If high volumeservices are enabled for a specific wireless device and a specific SIMassociated with a retail data plan, then a second APN for the endpointin the partner MNO's PGW is specified in the HLR/HSS subscriber recordbelonging to the partner MNO contracted by the retail customer. An HLRrecord may be a subset of the HSS record (3GPP TS 23.008 specifies thedatabase structure of an HSS record. The HSS subscriber record has alist, or a pointer to a “list of authorized visited networkidentifiers,” that identify(ies) the roaming partner/operator's networkidentities. Each possible roaming partner preferably should be listed inthis list. A network identifier is identified with a network identifiertype, for example ‘home PLMN’, ‘home country’, or ‘visited PLMN’.Alternative implementations may have multiple lists, for H-PLMN andV-PLMN. Without respect to the exact implementation, visited networksare identified as belonging to a group associated with the H-PLMN andanother set identified as belonging to a group associated with theV-PLMN. Since there are two SIM profiles, one for the anchor MNO andanother for the retail MNO, two different sets of PLMNs are populated ineach respective HLR/HSS and for uninterrupted telematics operation, atleast the anchor MNO's HLR/HSS contains a matching set of PLMNidentifiers that correspond to the set of PLMN identifiers that theretail MNO will allow operation on. Ideally, the anchor will supportuniversal roaming on all MNOs that are candidate MNOs offering retaildata services to customers as well as all partner networks offeringroaming service to those candidate MNO's customers.

Another set of lists associated with each subscriber in the HSS is partof the ‘Operator Determined Barring General Data’. This list contains anauthorized list of APNs for each subscriber called the ‘W-APN AuthorizedList’. It is standard and customary for the W-APN Authorized lists to becategorically identical among types of customers. For example mostcustomers would have access to a single APN, named, for example,‘HomeOperator.MobileCountry.Broadband’. This APN may provide Internetaccess to the home/anchor operator's PGW and to the Internet accessendpoint of the home/anchor operator. If a SIM/subscriber belongs to amachine-to-machine group, for example the above described telematics usecase, the HSS entry for the W-APN may not include standard internetaccess at all, but only access to an endpoint that is connected to theautomaker or the TSP. It might be named ‘HomeOperator.MobileCountry.GM’or ‘HomeOperator.MobileCountry.Ford’. The definition and structure of anAPN is defined in 3GPP 23.003. Associated with each W-APN in theAuthorized List is a W-APN Barring Type. Values to allow access to thespecific APN are: allow access to the W-APN whether it is located inVPLMN or HPLMN; prohibit access to this HOME APN when in a VPLMN;prohibit access to the VISITED APN when in a VPLMN; prohibit access tothe HOME APN when in a HPLMN and lastly prohibit access to publicinternet through any W-APN regardless of whether the subscriber is in aVPLMN or HPLMN.

Strategically naming network identifiers in the “list of authorizedvisited network identifiers” as HPLMN and VPLMN in conjunction with theallowed access point name will allow the HSS to enable a SIM/subscriber,regardless of whether it is in a home market or a visited market, toaccess the high volume, high bandwidth services in those places wherethe SIM/subscriber has subscribed to local internet access using localbreakout and it will allow global access to low volume diagnostics,firmware reflashing and remote control globally. This is an example andthe APNs allowed could easily be reversed to allow global access to theinternet and only local access to low volume diagnostics, firmwarereflashing, and remote control.

Another method that can be used to manage network access across multipleoperators and multiple geographies or countries is to allow every APN inthe HSS to have a different entry in the Subscription Profile Repository[SPR], the database used by the PCRF to provide different rulesdepending upon the specific operator and country. The functions of thePolicy and Charging Control Architecture are defined in 3GPP TS 23.203.The advantage of using the PCRF is that a single APN with access to theInternet can be used for all packet data access to the external sourceswith policy and charging applied on a per service flow or on a perapplication. The PCRF allows extremely flexible control and charging fordevices, in both the home and the visited markets. Setting “Service DataFlow Filters” allows individual services to be identified and controlledover a single APN if appropriate. TS 23.203 described ways ofcategorizing different types of traffic, for example using specificports for low volume telematics traffic. Modifying the PCRF allows theHLR/HSS and SIM values described above to remain constant among allsubscribers of a group, while granting individual permission to usecertain services. Multiple APNs can be supported in an environment wherethe PCRF is the primary controller of access to network usage.

A third possible method of managing network access is by using anintelligent Diameter Routing Agent (“DRA”) with roaming network accesscontrol functions. The use of a DRA to control roaming is a new conceptbeing promoted by several of the new DRA solutions. In this model, theDRA ‘intercepts’ messaging from the external roaming partners andrejects operation on networks except for a targeted roaming network. Inthe example above with three operators A, B and C, if the partnernetwork A is the network that the customer chooses as his provider forhigh volume, high bandwidth service, the DRA can ‘intercept’ messagingfrom partner networks B and C and provide ‘forbidden PLMN’ (or similar)response message to populate the ‘forbidden PLMN’ locations in the SIMcard. A company called Evolved Intelligence, based in Bristol UK offersan exemplary solution called Complete Control that intercepts incomingdiameter/SS7 messaging and blocks roamer access to the network operatorswho operate networks opposite of the specific selected partner for highvolume services. Low volume services in an area wheredriver/operator/owner associated with a given vehicle user equipmentdevice does not select a high volume high bandwidth service provider canoperate on any available network as long as the anchor has an acceptableroaming agreement for low volume services. Ideally, the wireless devicewill select the operator with the best network coverage or the preferredoperators based on the ordering in the preferred PLMN list contained inthe SIM card.

The overall system may operate with one or more of the methods describedabove, the HSS-based steering, the SIM-based steering, the DRA-basedsteering or Policy Charging and Control management or it may operate ina system that uses a combination of the above systems to deliver theappropriate network access to provide services that are financiallyattractive for the driver/customer to use. An example of the details ofthe solution might be to offer customers of a car company, for exampleMercedes Benz, wireless hotspot and streaming audio in their cars. Inthe example, supplying these services in all geographies in the UnitedStates with an AT&T or Verizon SIM is easily accomplished. Globally AT&Tand Verizon have a nearly ubiquitous footprint that operates with asingle data plan and a single subscription to cover the entire UnitedStates. Considering customers based in Canada, there are operators thatprovide similar capability, independently from each other and like theUS, the operators there arrange with other operators for coverage withthat Canadian SIM where the operator who provided the SIM does not havecoverage.

From a car owner's viewpoint, the car owner could subscribe with Telusfor additional data services if Telus is the operator that the automakerselected to provide the SIM. This solution works for the Mercedes carowner who is also a Telus customer, but is not optimal for Mercedes carowners who happen to be customers of Rogers or Bell Canada for theirsmartphone services. The Telus SIM has limitations on it to precludeoperation on other networks where Telus operates the RAN. Rogers andBell Canada, as competing operators are unlikely pay Telus for their owncustomers to roam on Telus network and consume high volume, highbandwidth data. The Mercedes car owner must subscribe to an additionaldata plan with Telus (or possibly Mercedes as a data reseller) thatoperates on Telus' network, with its associated costs and breakage ofthe new plan, unless the customer happens to have independently selectedTelus for wireless services for the customer's handset. In the casewhere the customer has an existing relationship (or a new one, for thatmatter) with the same wireless operator as the automotive OEM hasselected there is an opportunity for splitting the bill between customerfacing services and OEM vehicle centric services. If the Mercedes carowner has no existing relationship with Telus, it is absolutelynecessary that the customer either sign up for data services withMercedes (the OEM), TSP or Telus (wireless operator) that providesMercedes (the OEM) connectivity and SIM.

Suppose for example, there are three wireless operators operating RANsand consumer wireless services in Canada (in actuality, there may bemore). Those operators are Telus, Bell Canada and Rogers. For an AOEM,selecting a SIM from any of the three might be undesirable because eachof the three operators provides roughly one-third of the wirelesstelecommunications connectivity for retail customers in Canada. Eachoperates a similar network and there may be overlap in some places, butin other places there may be coverage by only one of the threeoperators. For telematics, selecting one will be exclusionary to atleast two-thirds of the customers for high volume, high bandwidth data,from a split billing combined bill perspective, and for some, from ageographic coverage perspective. Typically, there will always be areaswhere one operator provides better coverage than another. From theperspective of the automobile OEM, it would be ideal to be able toprovide low volume services on any of the three, and on the onespecifically that provides the best coverage where the vehicle islocated. Selecting a neutral fourth party SIM that has roaming coverageon each of the three, with the coverage set to utilize standard 3GPPnetwork selection without any predisposition to select any one or theother of the three operators would be the best solution. That ideal‘fourth’ party might be Verizon or AT&T where the SIM operates on allthree networks without bias to one of the others.

Low-volume vehicle-centric services are only part of the problem.Ideally, high volume, high bandwidth services could operate on the bestoperator as well. Internet of Things (“IoT”) device roaming has beenstructured by the wireless industry to minimize the monthly reoccurringcharge and maximize the per-minute airtime and per-megabyte data rates.This model strongly favors low volume services typically found with IoTdevices but it has a strong negative effect on high volume, highbandwidth consumer facing services. This has been planned by thewireless communication industry—one operator wants to maximize its ownrevenue opportunities with its own customers. This operator does notwant to share the retail customers who came at a high acquisition cost,with outside wireless providers, or, for that matter with automobileOEMs.

One method currently used in the vehicle industry is to provide a SIMcard for a second GSM-2G/3G/4G wireless transceiver mounted in a car anddesigned specifically for customer centric services. As mentionedearlier, this is a very expensive solution. Another solution is for theautomobile OEM to sell data connectivity to his customers directly. Thissolution is not in the best interest of the wireless network operator asthe wireless customer relationship is shared with another company thatcan move the service away from the initial wireless network operator.The best way is for the anchor network operator who has the relationshipwith the automobile OEM to steer the customer facing wireless traffic tothe network chosen by the driver/consumer. This solution assumes thatthe driver/consumer knows where he principally travels and assumes thathe select the wireless network for his own handset/smartphone/personaluser equipment device that provides the best coverage in the geographywhere the driver/consumer principally spends his time. Further, inselecting the wireless operator, the driver/consumer may make aconscious trade-off between coverage and cost, at the expense ofcoverage to some degree, to select the correct wireless network operatorand network coverage that fits the driver/consumer's own budget.

Since current technology does not support splitting simultaneouswireless coverage between two operators using a user equipment devicehaving only one cellular transceiver, all service, includingvehicle-centric OEM services, must be moved to the wireless operatorthat the driver/consumer selects. For the OEM, as long as the vehiclehas adequate coverage most of the time, and unless the driver/makes apoor choice of wireless operator network, the vehicle will have coveragemost of the time on the driver/customer selected wireless operator'snetwork.

Working on the premise that the wireless operator who provides the SIMhas universal access to all operators and reasonable rates for lowvolume data usage, this solution should work as an acceptable method toprovide high volume, high bandwidth customer-centric service.

The interface to the management platform allows a SIM to be defined byIMSI, ICCID, IMEI, VIN, MSISDN or any other identifier that uniquelyidentities a device in a mobile network that can be agreed upon byusers/network operators. The identifier may reference a database entrythat will include a few data fields that identify the operator selectedby the driver/customer as his, or her, desired network operator for aselected geography. It is possible to select multiple operators inmultiple geographies, but it is not desirable to be able to selectmultiple operators in a single geography, although it is possible; suchmulti-operator selections is prioritized in PLMN lists. Additionally,for each network operator named in a SIM-profile database, an IMSI, andan MSISDN are entered by the partner network operator.

A partner network operator configures, through the API or HTMLinterface, access to the record of his prospective driver/customer,using the identifier, preferably ICCID or VIN, which has beenpre-populated by the management platform's operators and the automotiveOEM. The ICCID/VIN is associated with, and identifies, the record entryand the partner network operator actor (i.e., employee of network chosenbut the end-user), by virtue of his login credentials, can only populatecertain information into the database, controlling only customer servicewhile not affecting any other information within the database. Thepartner operator actor cannot affect, or modify, basic OEM service andhe can only affect customer service for the partner network operatorsown MCC/MNC. The partner operator actor may enter an IMSI into an IMSIfield associated with his employer's network's MCC/MNC. The IMSI iswithin a range, or ranges, associated with the partner network operator.The partner operator actor enters an MSISDN into the MSISDN fieldassociated with his own MCC/MNC. Additionally, the mobile networkoperator can select options that allow these credentials using its IMSIand MSISDN to operate in other markets as secondary, valid roamingmarkets, where the partner network operator has agreed with thedriver/customer that the partner network operator will be responsiblefor providing roaming service and will be financially responsible to thethird roaming network operator for the roaming service consumed by thedriver/customer. The driver/customer will be responsible to the partnernetwork operator for roaming service charges for data and/or voiceservice incurred in this third market.

GSMA has developed RSP Architecture Version 1.0 dated 23 Dec. 2015 andRSP Technical Specification Version 1.0 dated 13 Jan. 2016. Thisspecification generally outlines a method for distributing a SIM cardtoken (digital SIM card subscription). This architecture was designedfor a new generation of smaller, lighter, mobile-connected devices thatare too small to support a changeable SIM device. The process startswith a consumer buying a device and then going to his selected wirelessoperator and purchasing a voucher. The voucher is purchased on theconsumer's existing contract or the consumer negotiates a new contract.The voucher may be on a plastic card (like a credit card) or on aprinted page containing a bar code and a QR code. The bar code containsthe ICCID (similar to the above, and in general, mathematically relatedto the IMSI) and the QR code and a scratch label with a PIN and PUKcontained hidden. The bar code (IMSI) is connected to the contract atthe point of sale. After purchasing the card or page from the retailer,the consumer can, at his own convenience utilize a smartphoneapplication to pair with the target device and his smartphone (usingshort range wireless services like Bluetooth or WiFi) then scan the QRcode. The smartphone app connects to a backend system. The backendsystem creates an eSIM profile and encrypts that profile andsubsequently downloads the eSIM profile to the smartphone. The eSIMprofile is downloaded from the smartphone to the target device and thesoftware on the device activates the target device.

The just-mentioned voucher and SIM token distribution processfacilitates device activation and download of eSIM profiles. Inaddition, SIM token distribution creates a customer SIM and deviceprofile attached to a customer subscription and account. A user'sautomobile could be a target device and the user could pair his, or her,smartphone using Bluetooth or WiFi to the automobile and subsequentlypush an eSIM profile directly to an automobile. This accomplishes thesolution of creating a wireless service for customer facing services,but it lacks the functionality for the OEM facing services.Specifically, it lacks the methods for allowing the OEM to communicatedirectly to the vehicle from the OEM backend. It lacks the necessarysecurity normally associated with dedicated APN services for OEMservices. It also lacks the functionality for the driver/customer tosplit the bill with the OEM, with the OEM paying for the OEM portion ofthe bill. But it does have one important function. It pulls an eSIMprofile from the driver/consumer's selected wireless operator. The eSIMprofile contains the ICCID, IMSI and MSISDN. These are the key elementsthat must be populated by the wireless network operator into thepartner-operator database portion of the management platform.

The standard solution and mobile application (smartphone app) can bemodified specifically to support the disclosed management platform toeliminate the heavy lifting done by the IT department of thedriver/customer's selected mobile network operator. The selected mobilenetwork operator would be required to operate the eSIM Profile andVoucher Generator. A modified smartphone app may be operatedspecifically for the management platform and the automobile OEM. Thisapp may capture the eSIM profile, much the same way as it currentlycaptures the eSIM for a small wearable device. Instead of connecting viaBluetooth or WiFi to a small wearable device, the smartphone may connectto the disclosed management platform Profile and Voucher SubscriptionConverter (“PVSC”). The PVSC will manipulate the Provisioning and SIMManagement platform disclosed herein to install the necessary eSIMcredentials to facilitate the operation of driver/consumer facing dataservices. Those credentials are loaded into the database using theidentifier for the vehicle which could be, as described above, the VIN,IMSI, ICCID, or other wireless device identifier along with the IMSI (orICCID) and MSISDN received through the voucher. The IMSI and MSISDNreceived from the voucher are installed as the second profile IMSI andsecond profile MSISDN.

SUMMARY

A user equipment device comprises a memory portion that contains a firstidentity profile for use in accessing a first class of service and asecond identity profile for use in accessing a second class of service,and a processor configured to manage the transmission of a first contexttraffic flow having the first class of service over a mobile networkaccording to the first identity profile and to manage the transmissionof a second context traffic flow having the second class of service overthe mobile network, simultaneously with the transmission of the firstcontext traffic flow, according to the second identity profile.

Data traffic associated with the first and second context traffic flowsmay be processed by a single wireless transceiver simultaneously.

Data traffic associated with both of the first and second traffic flowsmay be routed to a single mobility anchor of a mobile network with whichthe single wireless transceiver is in communication with. The mobilityanchor may be a serving gateway of the mobile network.

The processor of the user equipment may be further configured todistribute portions of the second context traffic flow by directing afirst portion of the second context traffic flow to a first subcarriertransmit circuit of the device and by directing at least a secondportion of the second context traffic flow to a second subcarriertransmit circuit. In an aspect, the processor may only distribute to thefirst subcarrier transmit circuit and to the second subcarrier transmitcircuit the first and second portions of the second context traffic flowfor transmission when no portion of the first context traffic flow isbeing transmitted.

The first and second context traffic flows may both be transmitted inthe same band of wireless spectrum.

The processor of the user equipment device may be further configured tocause the first transmit circuit and the second transmit circuit totransmit the first portion and second portion of the second data sessiontraffic flow, respectively, on sub carriers that are not spectrallyadjacent to each other.

Each of the first identity profile and the second identity profile maybe associated with a different long-range wireless network than theother.

The processor of the user equipment may be further configured tonecessarily cause the first context traffic flow to follow a handofffrom a first wireless cell to a second wireless cell so that a handoffof the first context traffic flow necessarily follows a handoff alreadycompleted of the second context traffic flow from the first wirelesscell to the second wireless cell according to the second identityprofile.

The memory portion of the user equipment device may be a single SIM thatstores both the first and second identity profiles.

The first and second transmit circuits may each or both be virtualtransmit circuits that use a single hardware circuit, wherein the singlehardware circuit uses a single digital to analog conversion module fortransmission of the first and second portions of the second contexttraffic flow.

The user equipment device may report that the second wireless cell isthe only cell that can support an acceptable data communication sessionfor the first context data flow, even if a cell other than the firstcell or the second cell could support an acceptable data communicationsession for the first context data flow. The first and second contextdata flows may be EPS bearers.

A provisioning, analytics, and management platform (“PAM”) comprises aprocessor configured to provision a second identity profile as adominant identity profile into a user equipment device that has beenprovisioned with a first identity profile, wherein the first and secondidentity profiles are each unique and are both associated with the userequipment device. The user equipment device may be programmed to alwayscause a handoff procedure of a second context traffic flow associatedwith the second identity profile from a first cell to a second cellbefore a handoff of a first context data flow that is associated withthe first identity profile can occur from the first cell to the secondcell, and the user equipment may be programmed to report measurementsduring the handoff procedure that the second cell is the only cell thatcan support an acceptable data communication session for the firstcontext data flow. Such reporting may occur even if other cells couldacceptably support the first context data flow. By suppressing thereporting of cells other than a cell that the second context trafficflow has already been handed off to ensures that the contextcorresponding to the first identity profile is always handed off to thesame cell that the second context data flow is handed off to.

The provisioning, analytics, and management platform may cause the userequipment device to be programmed to report measurements during thehandoff procedure that the second cell is the only cell that can supportan acceptable data communication session for the first context data floweven when measurements taken by the user equipment device indicate thatat least one cell other than the first cell or the second cell couldsupport an acceptable communication session for the first context dataflow, by causing the user equipment device to flag, or designate, thesecond identity profile as dominant with respect to the first identityprofile, which would thus be recessive with respect to the secondidentity profile.

A method comprises receiving provisioning of a second identity profile.The provisioning may be received from a PAM by a user equipment device.The method also comprises receiving provisioning of a first identityprofile; designating the second identity profile as a dominant identityprofile with respect to the first identity profile; managing a handoffof a second context traffic flow that corresponds to the dominantprofile based on measurements that indicate that a new second cell willprovide better performance that a current first cell, and managing ahandoff to the second cell of a first context traffic flow thatcorresponds to the first identity profile based on the handoff of thesecond context traffic flow to the second cell.

The second identity profile referred to in the method may be a highbandwidth class of service identity profile and the first identityprofile may be a low bandwidth class of service identity profile. Thesecond cell may be reported in a measurement report associated with thefirst identity profile as the only cell that can acceptably support thefirst context traffic flow if it were handed off from the first cell.Such reporting of only the second cell as being acceptable may beperformed even if at least one cell other than the second cell canacceptably support the first data traffic flow after handoff from thefirst cell.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a network system diagram of components for managingthe transmission of low and high bandwidth traffic over a mobilenetwork.

FIG. 2 illustrates a wireless network coverage environment that a userequipment devices (“UE”) may be moving within.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for provisioning a UE.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for operating a UE withtwo different contexts simultaneously.

FIG. 5 illustrates a network diagram of a E-UTRAN network environmenthaving a plurality of cell cites in two different radio access networks.

FIGS. 6 a-6 e illustrate steps of a UE profile negotiating andcompleting a handoff from one wireless cell to another.

FIGS. 7 a-7 g illustrate steps of a UE having a dominant profile and arecessive profile negotiating a handoff where the recessive profilenecessarily follows the dominant profile from one wireless cell toanother.

FIG. 8 illustrates a chart showing distribution of wireless spectrumsubcarrier assignments made by a RAN to a UE for use in transmittingdata flows.

FIG. 9 . illustrates a chart showing subcarrier assignments made by aRAN to a given UE that are not spectrally adjacent to other assignmentsto the same UE.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of typical circuitry of a UE havinga single transmit radio and a single receive radio circuit.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of typical circuitry of a UE havingtwo different radio circuits for each uplink and downlink directions tosupport dual SIM identities.

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of typical circuitry of a UE havinga single radio circuit for each uplink and downlink directions used forcarrier aggregation.

FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram of a UE with single circuitry forusing carrier aggregation to facilitate using carrier aggregation fortransmitting an applications data flow in the uplink direction.

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of a UE with single radio circuitrythat facilitates transmitting two separate identity contextssimultaneously.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As a preliminary matter, it will be readily understood by those personsskilled in the art that aspects described herein are susceptible ofbroad utility and application. Many methods, embodiments, andadaptations other than those herein described as well as manyvariations, modifications and equivalent arrangements, will be apparentfrom or reasonably suggested by the substance or scope of the aspectsdescribed herein.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been described herein indetail in relation to preferred embodiments, it is to be understood thatthis disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the presentinvention and is made merely for the purposes of providing a full andenabling disclosure of the invention. The following disclosure is notintended nor is to be construed to limit the present invention orotherwise exclude any such other embodiments, adaptations, variations,modifications and equivalent arrangements, the present invention beinglimited only by the claims appended hereto and the equivalents thereof.

Turning now to the figures. FIG. 1 illustrates a network system diagramof components for managing traffic between a single-radio device andmultiple content providers over multiple mobile networks using differentsubscriber identities and corresponding profiles simultaneously. Acommunications network 4 may include wireless communication networks,such as 3G, 4G, LTE, CDMA, etc., and wired, or wireless, links thatconnect, and provide interfaces to, components thereof. An anchorcommunication mobile network 6 having anchor packet gateway 7, and aplurality of local mobile networks 8, each having a local packet gateway9 and local serving gateway 10, operated by an anchor mobile networkoperator (“MNO”) and one of a corresponding plurality of local MNOs,respectively, are shown as a separate networks that overlap withcommunication network 4. However, it will be appreciated that a singlecloud may be used to collectively represent one or more communicationnetworks for purposes of clarity. One of the plurality of local networks8 may be a preferred network of a preferred network operator of aconsumer (e.g., a network that a consumer pays for monthly mobilephone/device service for a personal user device.)

System 2 includes a data analysis and management platform 12, which maybe referred to as a provisioning, analytics, and management platform(“PAM”) that couples with, is part of, or is in communication with,anchor mobile network 6. Anchor mobile network 6 may be associated witha device services provider 13, that provides services, over-and-abovenetwork and connectivity services, to wireless machine devices, such astelematics devices, or other Internet of Things (“IoT”) machine devices,represented by telematics device 14 shown located in vehicle 16 in thefigure. Machine device 14 is shown with a single radio transceiver 17,that typically includes an antenna, filters, radio frequency frontendcircuitry, etc. A machine device, such as 14 typically has a uniqueidentifier associated with it that uniquely identifies it, or asubscriber associated with it. For example, a mobile user equipmentdevice (“UE”) such as a user's smart phone, or a machine device, such astelematics device 14 associated with vehicle 16 typically includes aInternational Mobile Subscriber Identity (“IMSI”) 18, which is a uniqueidentifier that comprises a country value (typically referred to as amobile country code (“MCC”) that uniquely identifies a country that amobile operator operates in), a network operator value (typicallyreferred to as a mobile network code (“MNC”) that uniquely identifies amobile network services provider/operator), and a subscriber identityvalue (typically referred to as a mobile subscription identificationnumber (“MSIN”). Together, the country value, the network operatorvalue, and the subscriber identity value compose IMSI 18.

Machine device 14 may communicate via preferred network 8 as shown bywireless link 20, or with anchor network 6 as shown by wireless link 22.Links 20 and 22 merely illustrate that when device 14 communicates viacommunication network 4, it typically has a wireless link to aparticular wireless network, (i.e., preferred network 6 or anchornetwork 6, respectively), depending on its location (i.e., whether it iswithin range of a wireless transmit/receive node, such as an eNode B(“eNB”) in a Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) network).

In a typical scenario where device 14 is a telematics device in avehicle, device services provider 13 may be a telematics servicesprovider that may wirelessly provide, or manage, services to vehicle 16,and user/occupant devices (such as wi-fi hot spot service, over-the-airsoftware updates to various components and modules of the vehicle thatmay be connected to the telematics device via a vehicle communicationbus, such as a Controller Area Network (“CAN”) bus) located therein. Itwill be appreciated that some services, such as over-the-air updates ofsoftware, automatic crash notification messaging, and voicecommunication from vehicle 16 between an occupant of the vehicle and alive operator are relatively infrequent compared to a user's in-vehicleinternet browsing and streaming. These infrequent types of services maybe referred to herein as vehicle-centric services that are typically lowbandwidth or low data types of services, while internet browsing, musicstreaming, video stream, document downloading, e-mail messaging, SMSmessaging, and the like, may be referred to as consumer services, thatare often data-intensive as compared to the vehicle types of servicesthat infrequently occur between vehicle devices and a telematicsoperator either directly or as an agent for a vehicle original equipmentmanufacturer (“OEM”).

A telematics services provider may have arranged for its networkingequipment 13 to use endpoint 26 of anchor network 6 to transportvehicle-centric services while a consumer may have arranged for his, orher, smart phone table, or other wireless devices, to use local network8 to transport consumer services, which may be delivered from a contentprovider server 28 that stores and typically provides music, video,e-mail, or cloud storage documents, to a user device. In the figure,consumer service content is labeled in bold font as “HIGH BANDWIDTHCONTENT” and a bold flow path 34 is shown between content providerserver endpoint 30 to vehicle machine device 14 to highlight thatconsumer content typically comprises a large amount of data transportedover a high bandwidth, high data rate wireless connection compared withvehicle-centric services that typically comprise much lower amounts ofdata and typically need much lower data rate/bandwidth connections,shown by flow path 36 as non-bold to indicate the lower datarequirements. Flow path 36 may occur via an interface with endpoint 26over the Internet 32, or via a connection other than the Internet, suchas, for example, a virtual private circuit using IP protocol. FIG. 1shows two paths 36 to represent two alternative embodiments ofimplementing a network connection between a device services provider'sequipment 13 with anchor network's equipment 13 for providing deviceservices via the anchor network to vehicle device 14.

Each segment of flow path 34 is shown with a large arrow in the downlinkdirection and a smaller arrow in the uplink direction to indicate thatthe high bandwidth traffic flows from a content server 28 toward a userbut traffic in the uplink direction from user device 14 to a contentserver typically is a much smaller traffic flow (i.e., amount of data ordata packets). High bandwidth traffic may be referred to as being of apremium class. Management platform 12 logically connects with HSS 38,subscriber profile repository 40, and P-PLMN-LG 42. Subscriber profilerepository 40 is shown in communication with PCRF 44 of anchor network 8and PCRF 44 communicates with PGW 7 via a Gx interface. PGW 7communicates with PGW 9 via an S9 interface; PGW 9 communicates withPCRF 46 via another Gx interface. It will be appreciated that theinterface types discussed are in reference to a LTE network, but thatsimilar interfaces and corresponding protocols may be used betweennetwork components that are similar to the ones discussed above.

In addition to identifier 18, machine device 14 as shown in the figureincludes a second identifier/IMSI 19. Each of identifiers 18 and 19 mayrefer to corresponding unique subscriber profiles that are uniqueprofiles, even if they are associated with the same physicalperson/subscriber in a mobile network operator database such as may bestored in a mobile network's HSS. Each unique subscriber profile, whichare each associated with a unique device identifier (typically an IMSIand/or an MSISDN), may be used by device 14 to access either mobilenetwork 6 or mobile 8 for a given data session between the device 14 andeither of the mobile networks.

Not only may device subscriber profiles 18 and 19 cause device 14 toconduct a wireless data session with either anchor network 6, or any oflocal networks 8, device 14 may conduct a first session with the anchornetwork using one identifier, for example first IMSI/profile 18, and thedevice may conduct a second data session with one of local networks 8using second identifier/profile 19 substantially simultaneously with thefirst. The two disparate sessions may be conducted substantiallysimultaneously with each other notwithstanding the embodiment shown inFIG. 1 in which device 14 only has one radio transceiver 17.Simultaneous data sessions from device 14 using different subscriberprofiles 18 and 19 may be supported by the single transceiver 17 ofdevice 14 when it has an established radio link with one a wirelessmobile network.

Turning now to FIG. 2 , the figure illustrates some details of awireless mobile network environment having a local mobile network 8. Amobile device 14 having first IMSI/profile 18 and second IMSI/profile 19stored therein, which profiles are unique to the mobile device, maycommunicate with network 8 over wireless link 20 or may communicate withnetwork 6 over wireless link 22. Network 8 typically includes aplurality of eNodeB stations 48A, 48B, through 48 n, which are connectedvia an S1-MME interface to Mobility Management Entity (“MME”) 50.(Network 6 typically will have similar architecture.) eNodeBs 48 arealso shown each connected via an S1-U interface to SGW 10, which in turnis connected to MME 50 via an S11 interface. SGW typically controlsrouting of high bandwidth traffic flow 34 and low bandwidth traffic flow36, from endpoints 30 and 26, respectively, shown in FIG. 1 . Endpoints30 and 26 may have access point names associated with them for use inidentifying traffic flow sources or types.

Anchor HSS 38, Local HSS 39, PAM 12, and UE device 14 are shown asenlarged text boxes that include bullet points of functions andoperation the respective network elements may perform. It will beappreciated that the functions and operations are described in relationto the elements associated with them in the figure for purposes ofdescription—different elements may perform the functions listed in thetext boxes, or other functions, features, and operations may beperformed by the illustrated network components, or network componentsthat may not be illustrated, without departing from the functionality ofnovel aspects disclosed herein.

PAM 12 cooperates with elements of anchor network 8, typically anHLR/HSS, to provision a user equipment device for low bandwidth machineservice, such as vehicle telematics service. It will be appreciated thata given UE that is being provisioned by the PAM could also includemachine devices for providing portable Wi-Fi service at publicsocial/community events, or a machine UE that monitor other machineswhere the machine UE may be used to report health, status, or inventoryof various machines nearby, such as vending machines, medical equipment,rental vehicles, warehouse inventory, and the like. Such a machine mayalso be provisionable to support high bandwidth service to multipleusers' personal UE devices if the corresponding user, or users,provision high bandwidth service into the machine UE according toaspects disclosed herein. However, for purposes of discussion, machinedevice 14 is assumed to be a vehicle telematics device installed into avehicle at the time of vehicle manufacture, and is typically provisionedvia cooperation between PAM 12 and anchor network 6 that the vehiclemanufacturer, or telematics services provider, has established as thenetwork for performing low bandwidth telematics services.

Upon provisioning the UE, and corresponding low bandwidth identity andprofile corresponding to the vehicle, into a table at the anchornetwork's HSS 38, the identity (referred to herein as a first profile)is ‘pushed’, or transmitted, installed, or otherwise loaded into UE 14for storage in a memory portion that may include a SIM, as well as aP-PLMN list that provides the UE with network priority for use indetermining a network to attempt to connect to when multiple networksignals may be available to the UE, as discussed elsewhere herein.

Continuing with the vehicle telematics scenario, when a buyer purchasesa vehicle into which UE 14 has been installed, the vehicle owner mayselect, using a web browser interface for example, their own personalwireless network provider as a preferred network provider for wirelessservice that supports their personal web surfing, document downloadingand uploading, video and picture sharing, and the like, from thevehicle, where the vehicle owner, or vehicle passengers, may use UE 14as a wireless hot spot that provides long range wireless connectivity tothe Internet, or other similar network, via a wireless mobile network.In the example scenario, the user selects local network 8 as his, orher, personal-use wireless provider, and local HSS 39 provisions thisselection and generates an identity profile, referred to herein as ahigh bandwidth second identity/profile different from the identityprofile that was generated by the anchor network HSS 38, and thatincludes information relative to the user-selected preferred wirelessnetwork. The second identity is loaded into UE 14. UE 14 is configuredto determine that the second profile is to be used for high bandwidthservices, and that the second profile is to be used for connecting toRAN as the vehicle it is part of travels.

A processor of UE 14 flags the second identity profile as the ‘dominant’profile and flags the first identity profile, which is the profileassociated with the telematics services, as a ‘recessive’ profile. Thus,whenever UE 14 operates to support data service flows, it uses thedominant second profile, and information associated therewith, such asIMSI, for high bandwidth data flows and the UE uses the recessive firstprofile for low bandwidth telematics services. Information associatedwith the profiles may include an APN that is used for determine whetherthe UE is attempting a high bandwidth or a low bandwidth wirelessnetwork access.

Turning now to FIG. 3 , the figure illustrates a flow diagram of amethod 300 for provisioning a user equipment device (“UE”), such as amachine-to-machine device, a device in a machine, such as a telematicsdevice in a vehicle, a user's smart phone or tablet, and the like.Method 300 begins at step 305. At step 310, provisioning information isgenerated, typically by a wireless mobile network, such as a cellulartelephone/data network. The provisioning information may include asubscriber profile and may include a device identifier, such as an IMSI.The device identifier may be stored, along with corresponding profileinformation in a subscriber identity module, in a memory portion of theuser equipment, and may be a physical card that the user equipmentdevice contains, or may be data stored electronically, typically innonvolatile memory, in the user equipment. The provisioning informationmay include information such as account information, security keys andother security information used for securely conducting a wirelesscommunication session, a user's PIN for unlocking the device for use,unique identifiers, such as an IMSI and a serial number of the SIMitself in the case of a physical SIM card, and other information thatmay be used to improve wireless performance of the device as it conductsa wireless phone call or data session. The provisioning information mayinclude a preferred PLMN list that prioritizes selection of networks toconnect with when a plurality of networks is available for the UE toconnect to. In addition, the provisioning information may associate aparticular class of service with a particular network. The particularclass of service and associated particular network may be associatedwith an APN such that when setting up a context with an APN throughwhich data for the context will pass, the APN may be used to identifythe class of service. For example, if low bandwidth telematics service,or low bandwidth machine health information, is an intended use of theUE, and the low bandwidth service will be provided through a particularnetwork's APN, then the UE may recognize the APN while setting up a lowbandwidth context and automatically select a first profile that isassociated with the low bandwidth context.

Although a given device may be intended for providing machine deviceservices, or similar low bandwidth services that typically are providedvia a predetermined network, an end user may wish to use the same devicefor consumer services on a network of his, or her choosing, which may(and almost always will) have a different APN for providing services,which often consume much more network resources (i.e., bandwidth) thatthe low machine bandwidth service. At step 315 the user selects anetwork for providing consumer services and at step 320, the UE isprovisioned with a second profile that is associated with, and intendedfor use with, the providing of consumer services. During provisioning ofdevice 14 at step 320, the second profile is designated in the userequipment as being a ‘dominant’ profile with respect to the firstprofile, which is designated as a slave, or ‘recessive’ profile. Thedesignation of dominant and recessive profiles may be stored in a SIM,or in another portion of memory of device 14 that is not used forstoring profiles. Method 300 ends at step 325.

Turning now to FIG. 4 , the figure illustrates a method 400 foroperating a UE and providing two different contexts simultaneously.Method 400 begins at step 405. At step 410, the UE begins to set up adata session context. The setting up of a context may be triggered by aninput from a user of the UE (i.e., the user opens a browsers andattempts to browse an Internet web page), or the UE may receive arequest from a machine device services provider's server to establish adata session context.

At step 415, a processor of the UE determines whether the context beingset up is to be a high bandwidth session or a low bandwidth session. Thedetermine at step 415 may be made based on an APN, an IP address, anapplication that the processor is running and that the user of the UEmay be using to cause the initiating of the set up of step 410, theexpiration of a timer, a message received from a wireless network, orother clues associated with an action at the UE or associated with amessage received from the wireless mobile network.

If the determination is made at step 415 that the context being set upis a low bandwidth context, the processor uses a low bandwidthidentifier and profile at step 420 for establishing the context. Forexample, if an incoming message from a telematics services providerrequests that the UE receive a software update over the air (“OTA”), theUE uses the IMSI and network information associated with the IMSI in thefirst profile, or low bandwidth profile, to connect to whicheverwireless network is at the top of the P-PLMN list stored in the UE. Ifanother context trigger does not cause the processor of the UE to beginthe set up of another context, method 400 ends at step 440.

If another context trigger causes the processor of the UE to begin theset up of another context based on a determination at step 425, method400 returns to step 425 and the processor in the UE determines whetherthe context to be set up is a consumer-oriented, high bandwidth context.If the context to be set up is a consumer-oriented, high bandwidthcontext, method 400 advances to step 430 and the processor of the UEbegins the setup of a second context traffic flow. An example of a highbandwidth consumer oriented traffic flow trigger might occur in ascenario where a user opens a web browser using his, or her smart phone,which may be configured to access the Internet via a Wi-Fi, which Wi-Fihotspot may be provided in the scenario by a telematics device in avehicle in which the user is traveling. The processor of the UEtelematics device recognizes the opening of a browser and automaticallyuses a second profile and associated information according toprovisioning that may have occurred as described above in reference tostep 320 in FIG. 3 . At step 435 the UE establishes the second contextusing the second subscriber identifier. Method 400 ends at step 440.

It will be appreciated that FIG. 3 shows and describes using a lowbandwidth subscriber identity and profile for a low bandwidth service,and using a high bandwidth subscriber identity and profile for consumerservices, which may be, but are not necessarily, high bandwidth contextdata session flows. Although FIG. 3 does not expressly show or describesimultaneous operation of both high and low bandwidth contexts, the datasession established at steps 420 and 435 may occur substantiallysimultaneously via a single UE, which may be the telematics deviceinstalled in a vehicle and that provides Wi-Fi hot spot service to apassenger's smart phone or other device.

Turning to FIG. 6 , the figure illustrates connection and sessionmanagement of a single-profile of a device in an LTE environment.Existing connection and session management illustrates how aspectsdisclosed herein below in reference to FIG. 14 contrast with existingconnection and session management. Connection and session management inan LTE environment is a performed by the Non-Access Stratum (“NAS”)protocol between the User Equipment (“UE”) and the Core Network (“CN”).Connection and Session management is performed by the Radio ResourceControl (“RRC”) protocol between the UE and the Evolved UMTS TerrestrialRadio Access Network (“U-UTRAN”). The NAS protocol performs andfacilitates services such as authentication, registration,bearer-context activation/deactivation and location registrationmanagement. The RRC protocol, more specifically known as the Accessstratum (“AS”) protocol is used to establish a connection, configure theradio bearers and their corresponding attributes and to controlmobility. More specifically, the RRC protocol sets up user datasessions. Once a network connection is established with a UE accordingto the NAS protocol, the RRC connection is optionally set up. When NASprotocol sets up a connection, that UE state is known as EMM-REGISTERED(“EMM-R”). When in the EMM-R state, the UE is attached to the LTEnetwork and an IP address is assigned to the Evolved Packet System(“EPS”) bearer. The Mobility Management Entity (“MME”) ‘knows’ thecurrent location of the UE to the accuracy of a cell, or at least to theaccuracy of a Tracking Area (“TA”), which is a group of cells. When adevice is EMM-R, mobility and movement within the radio access networkis managed by the UE. That is, as stated above, the UE maintains a TAand if the UE travels outside of the TA, then the UE must notify thenetwork of its location with the NAS protocol. No special networkmanagement requiring extraordinary network actions are necessary tofacilitate movement by the UE outside of an assigned TA. Only twodifferent RRC states are supported; RRC_IDLE (“RRC-I”), where the UEdevice minimizes network communications, and RRC_CONNECTED (“RRC-C”).The RRC-C state is the state where the network actively manages theconnections and mobility. Data transfer occurs in the RRC-C state. Bothof these states support device mobility, but each state supports devicemobility differently. In the RRC-C mode, active mobility management isrequired because a data session could be underway and data messagescould be in the midst of being sent to or from the device. While thedevice is in the RRC-I mode, the device itself can do the heavy liftingand maintain the network connection without assistance from networkelements. In the RRC-I mode, the UE determines which cell to select nextand if necessary the UE updates the network as to its whereabouts basedon the assigned TA, which could cover one cell, or a plurality of cells.In the event of mobile-terminated messages, the MME initiates pagingthroughout the entire tracking area where the UE last reported itspresence. In the RRC-I state (or mode), the UE is known in the EvolvedPacket Core (“EPC”) and the UE has an IP address in the EPC. The UE isnot known to be present in a specific E-UTRAN/eNodeB. When the UEestablishes a “context” in the eNodeB, it is known as in the RRC-Cstate. The UE is of course, known to the EPC in both RRC-I and RRC-Cstates, but the E-UTRAN/eNodeB only establishes positive control in theRRC-C “connected state.”

The network manages and controls mobility, but the UE assists withmobility management by providing the network with feedback as shown inFIG. 6 a . The UE location is known on a cell level (i.e., the MMEmaintains current information as to which cell, or eNodeB a UE isconnected with).

(To avoid reader confusion, it is pointed out that in the followingexamples discussed in reference to FIGS. 6 a-e and 7 a-g , a handofffrom eNodeB 48A to eNodeB 48B is described, which is different from thescenario described elsewhere herein in reference to FIG. 2 , whichillustrates and discusses a handoff from eNodeB 48B to eNodeB 48A.)

The eNodeB 48A configures the UE to provide regular measurements and theUE regularly reports back to the network as it operates. Based upon thecomparing of measurements, including signal strength measurements, withcertain corresponding thresholds, the eNodeB 48A arranges for anothereNodeB 48B to provide connectivity by using a handoff request to theproposed eNodeB 48B as shown in FIG. 6 b . The proposed eNodeB 48Bestablishes control and responds with a handoff request acknowledge backto the current, or first, eNodeB 48A. The first eNodeB 48A issues ahandoff command to the UE as shown in FIG. 6 c while the data from thepacket session is temporarily forwarded to the second eNodeB 48B, whichwill be receiving the handoff. As shown in FIG. 6 d , the UE confirmsthe handoff with a confirmation message back to the second eNodeB 48B.The mobile-terminated data begins flowing thru the second eNodeB 48B,with the data initially coming in via a round-about way from the firsteNodeB 48A. The second eNodeB 48B requests the EPC to switch the datapath to a more direct path from the EPC to the second ENodeB 48B. TheServing Gateway (“SGW”) performs its role of mobility anchor for databearers when a UE moves between eNodeB s (one of multiple roles of theSGW) and completes the handoff by switching the data path as shown inFIG. 6 e . Although the call path is heavily dictated by the eNodeB, onecan see that the UE provides a significant function. The UE constantlyevaluates the network, especially other available cells and isconstantly measuring the active eNodeB for signal quality. An importantaspect in LTE is that the UE provides a specific potential “next” targeteNodeB when the signal levels for the current connection begin to reachmarginal status. The threshold is actually set by the serving eNodeB, sothere is some control as to when to move to the next eNodeB, butessentially, the UE “asks” for the next eNodeB by name when the UErecognizes, according to the network's standard, that the handoff isnecessary to maintain communications. It will be appreciated that thesteps discussed in reference to FIGS. 6 a-6 e contemplate a single UEand a single IMSI/subscriber identity profile that is handed off.

Although FIG. 7 a shows the connection management in the RRC-C“connected” state as previously discussed, FIG. 7 a (as well as FIGS. 7b-7 g ) illustrate two cell phone devices with active sessions. Icons oftwo cell phones are shown for purposes of illustration, but the cellphone icons are meant to represent two active profiles, with eachprofile having an active session, in a single UE that has only a singleset of radio frequency circuitry, as shown in FIG. 14 and describedbelow in reference thereto. In the FIG. 7 figures, the cell phone deviceis shown as a small cell phone in front of a larger cell phone. Thisrepresents a single physical communications device, perhaps an IoT ortelematics device containing a single physical radio, but supporting twoactive identity profiles. The modem in the radio of FIG. 7 contains thetypical modem to support LTE with Carrier Aggregation (“CA”) as shown inthe high level functional diagrams of FIGS. 12 and 14 . A UE having thedevices depicted in FIG. 7 is differentiated from other devices thatsupport CA, and that is that it contains two, either physical orlogical, SIM cards.

The traditional Dual SIM, Dual Active device currently offered by manymanufacturers is a phone/UE device that contains two complete modems,each similar to the single radio implementation of FIG. 10 . Thetraditional Dual SIM, Dual Active device radio implementation shown inFIG. 11 is a very expensive offering because it contains two completelyseparate radios (i.e., radio frequency transceiver circuitry). As shownin FIG. 11 , two complete sets of DACs, ADCs, mixers, amplifiers,switches, duplexers, filters and antennas are required to offer completeoperational agility. Each radio has the ability to tune any band amongthe available bands of the radio design. As shown in FIG. 11 , eachdiscrete band, whether the band is 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz or 20MHz requires its own duplexer and band pass filter. The diversityreceiver as shown is used to enhance data reception and cannot be tunedto a separate band as the out-of-phase signal is combined in the DSP ofthe baseband of the receiver.

Disadvantages of the two completely separate sets of transceiversinclude cost, size, weight, antenna arrangement, receiverdesensitization, and battery life. For an in-vehicle telematics devicethe other factors matter less than cost and antenna arrangement.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 14 , which facilitates a novel aspectdisclosed herein, reduces, or eliminates the cost penalty and theantenna arrangement penalty by eliminating the complete extra radiowhile still supporting dual SIM profiles, or other similar identityprofiles. With judicious management of the wireless connection, acellular device built for Carrier Aggregation can be configured, in anaspect disclosed herein, by software running on the processor of asingle-transceiver UE, thus solving the challenges previously mentioned,including the objections for a cell phone. Since an LTE receiver caneasily receive every bit transmitted in the pass band of the band passfilters, the receiver portion is easily adapted. The baseband softwareis adapted to support two complete profiles and communications contexts.The LTE downlink (data from the network to the mobile device) usesOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). OFDMA enables thetransmission of high-quality signals in multipath mobile communicationenvironments. By modifying the number of subcarriers that make up theOFDM signal, it is also possible to adapt to a wide variety of differentchannel bandwidths and to operate flexibly in accordance with thespectrum assigned to the operator. As shown in FIG. 8 , OFDMA is a radioaccess scheme that uses multiple low data rate carrier “signals” forparallel transmission of wideband data, delivering data at a high datarate that is highly resistant to multipath interference. OFDMA used byLTE differs from OFDM in that OFDMA incorporates elements of TDMA sothat the subcarriers can be allocated dynamically among different usersof the channel for each time block. The result is a more robust systemwith increased capacity. The capacity comes from the trunking efficiencygained by multiplexing low rate users onto a wider channel to providedynamic capacity when needed and the robustness comes from the abilityto schedule users by frequency to avoid narrowband interference andmultipath fading. FIG. 8 depicts a standard OFDM signal where a user isassigned a certain number of resources (or carriers) and those resourcesremain constant. The depiction of an OFDMA signal shows the dynamicnature of the resource assignment—in some time blocks, a device may haveno resources assigned and in another, potentially all time blocks couldbe assigned to a specific user, based on traffic demands.

For uplink transmission (data from the mobile device to the network),LTE uses Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access. SC-FDMA is aradio access method that implements multiple-access by allocating thesignals for different users to different frequencies while transmittingthe signals for an individual user at a single frequency. FIG. 9 shows asingle time block for three different LTE users.

Multiple subcarriers may be assigned to a given UE. It is possible tosupport either localized subcarriers as shown in FIG. 9 on the left, ordistributed subcarriers as shown on the right. LTE generally useslocalized subcarriers, but the generation techniques allow localizedsubcarriers, distributed subcarriers, or a combination of both.Currently, LTE actually allocates 12 adjacent subcarriers, known asResource Blocks (“RB”) occupying 15 kHz each for a total of 180 kHz ofbandwidth.

An LTE ‘stack’ and associated ‘processor’ (may be multiple processors,components, software, etc.) typically facilitate transmitting andreceiving signals in the UE using software-based techniques to generatethe SC-FDMA signals and receive the OFDMA signals. From a transmissionperspective, typically the software is managed by the LTE stack andimplemented on one or more Digital Signal Processors (“DSP”) generatinglow frequency composite or baseband transmit signals that are upconverted by mixers to the UE operational frequency. The DSP cangenerate many waveforms, but most DSPs lack the power to supportdistributed subcarriers as shown on the right in FIG. 9 . In order tosupport CA, which may either be Contiguous (“CC”) [Localized] orNon-Contiguous [Distributed], the low current generation DSPs in LTEdevices utilize a second transmitter chain, typically mixed at a lowlevel and amplified by a single power amplifier as shown in upper halfof FIG. 13 . Of course, the solution shown in FIG. 13 has the limitationthat it does not support Inter-Band CA, but it offers an acceptableimplementation for LTE handset manufacturers. For CA solutions, as shownin FIG. 13 , the LTE protocol stack generates two complete IP streamsthat are combined at the network level for increasing networkcommunications data bandwidth. From a receive perspective, no newhardware is required to support CA since the existing modem candemodulate the entire downlink bandwidth/spectrum from a given eNodeBand the baseband receive module can, thru software, selectively separatethe two streams into two discrete IP streams to be delivered to the LTEProtocol stack.

FIG. 14 shows the internal details of the dual profile LTEcommunications device. Except for the dual SIMs, the hardwareimplementation may be identical to the hardware implementation of a LTEcommunications device that supports CA. The dual SIMs, or a single SIMwith two different logical channels, is a hardware difference that mayfacilitate the aspect of a single-transceiver-dual-profile LTEcommunications device disclosed herein. SIM cards operate with a singlelogical channel assigned for the primary wireless connectionauthentication and security. SIM cards usually support multiple logicalchannels to facilitate a second VoLTE or WiFi authentication andsecurity. That functionality can be repurposed to support the dualprofile LTE device if a second profile USIM profile is installed in theSIM card.

FIG. 14 shows a LTE protocol stack 74 with differing data directionlines to support different applications. It is necessary to separate thereceive data in the processor 64 managing the baseband and the LTEprotocol. The receive data must be managed via two or more contextmanagement chains that can perform the entire LTE data (or call)management simultaneously as if they were separate radios. Many of thenew CA devices include multiple DSPs that can be logically separated,but this can also be managed on a multi-threaded single DSP. Thetransmit path can also be managed similarly with two DSPs or a singlepowerful multi-threaded DSP.

An advantage of the solution shown in FIG. 14 is that the solution canadapt itself to support two discrete communication contexts, or it canadapt itself to using the CA function to add upload and downloadperformance to a high volume, high bandwidth application. Since manytelematics applications use one very low volume, almost underusedcommunication context, this solution lends itself well to automotivetelematics and customer facing applications combined into a single radiodevice.

In order to facilitate the described hardware implementation, thenetwork must be manipulated. Ideally, the LTE network will remainunaware that two different “data calls” are carried by the same radiotransceiver. This results in a limitation that both profiles must becarried on the same operator using the same frequency band and eNodeBsite. FIG. 7 a shows the device of FIG. 14 as two cell phones. The largecell phone icon is considered to represent the dominant profile and thesecond, smaller cell phone icon is considered to represent the recessiveprofile. The dominant profile is the profile that drives the networkoperator selection. In our telematics example, it is the profileassigned to the customer by the retail customer/vehicle driver's choiceMNO. Since nearly every automotive telematics solutions include anautomotive OEM subscription and corresponding identity profile, and thissubscription identity profile is the first profile installed in thevehicle, the automotive OEM profile is considered first profile, orProfile 1, in the present discussion. Usually Profile 1 is installed inthe vehicle factory. Once a vehicle is sold to a retail customer, andthat customer adds a retail data plan, that retail subscription is thesecond Profile in the vehicle and it becomes Profile 2 as referred toherein. Profile 2 is also the dominant profile since the MNO selected bythe retail customer is the operator for all services, because allservices are delivered on the same operator using the same frequencyband at a given time.

FIG. 7 a shows the device operating normally. The eNodeB 48A hasrequested the UE Profile 1 and Profile 2 to provide measurement reportsbased on signal strength measurements obtained by the UE reaching, orfalling below, certain low-signal-strength thresholds. The single UEmobile device containing two profiles manages the reporting mechanism sothat the UE device only transmits Profile 2 (dominant profile) reports.As shown in FIG. 7 b , eNodeB 48A initiates a Handoff Request to thenetwork-selected eNodeB, in this case, eNodeB 48B. Once eNodeB 48Bresponds with a Handoff Acknowledge, eNodeB 48A initiates a Profile 2Handoff Command, as shown in FIG. 7 c . When the UE receives the HandoffCommand, the UE initiates a Measurement Report that lists the targeteNodeB 48B as the only site available in the list of “possible handoffcandidates.” Meanwhile the UE begins the transition of the dominantprofile 2 context to eNodeB 48B. The transition of Profile 2 to eNodeB48B is shown in FIG. 7 d . The UE device continues to monitor messagingfrom eNodeB 48A while initiating a Handoff Confirmation to eNodeB 48B.eNodeB 48A meanwhile has sent a Handoff Request and received a HandoffAcknowledge to move Profile 1 over to eNodeB 48B because the UE providedinformation to eNodeB 48A that only eNodeB 48B meets handoff criteria.FIG. 7 e shows eNodeB 48A issuing a Handoff command to Profile 1 all thewhile things are cleaned up in the network for the data flow from theEPC to the UE on Profile 2. (It will be appreciated that an MME servingeNB 48A or eNB 48B may get involved in a handoff via an S1 interfaceprocedure if an X2 interface connection between the eNBs is notavailable.)

In FIG. 7 f , Profile 1 confirms the handoff to eNodeB 48B, whileProfile 2 receives data normally from eNodeB 48B. In the final step,shown at FIG. 7 g , eNodeB 48B requests the EPC reroute data directly toeNodeB 48B to complete the handoff for Profile 1.

The handoff process highlighted here shows an active data session fortwo simultaneously RRC-C data sessions. The process is much simpler fora single RRC-C data session and simpler still for a UE with bothprofiles in the RRC-I state. Some of the advantages of the solutiondescribed in reference to FIGS. 7 a-7 g include a much lowerimplementation cost with minimal compromises as compared to using twoseparate transceivers as shown in FIG. 11 . Adapting to differing datarequirements is another advantage. Since most wireless communicationsdevices already support CA, it does not require the creation of a highercost dual radio solution. If the solution is deployed with two activeprofiles in a single SIM device, using GSMA eSIM/eUICC technology, thissolution easily meets the flexibility requirements envisioned bycarmakers who have installed two SIM slots in automobiles, but withoutthe heavy burden of four antennas and two complete radio sets.

As discussed above, a UE device that provides simultaneous services forboth low bandwidth and high bandwidth services may do so usingcorresponding first and second identity profiles even if the UE only hasa single radio transceiver for transmitting the context data flows overan uplink to a wireless radio access network. As show in FIG. 14 , UEdevice 14 (as described previously in reference to FIG. 1 ), includes amemory portion 62, a processor 64, first transmit circuitry 66, andsecond transmit circuitry 68. It will be appreciated that thearrangement, inclusion, or exclusion elements and components of UE 14are shown, or not shown, for purposes of example, and may vary withoutdeparting from the functionality and aspects described herein. The radiotransceiver portion 17 of device 14 includes only a single set of radiofrequency circuitry for the transmit/uplink direction (i.e., one set ofduplexer/bandpass filters, one antenna, one power amplifier) that mayreceives two signal feeds, from first transmit circuitry 66 and secondtransmit circuitry 68 as shown in the figure, which transmit circuitry66 and 68 may partially be part of processor 64 and the functions ofwhich transmit circuitry may be implemented by software running onprocessor 64, which receive information signals to process from stack74, and which typically operate at baseband frequency.

As shown in FIG. 14 , memory portion 62 may include two SIM profiles.SIM profile 70 may be a first profile for use in setting up andoperating a low bandwidth context and SIM profile 72 may be a secondprofile for use in setting up and operating a high bandwidth,consumer-oriented context. Wireless networking stack 74, which may be anLTE stack, may use second profile 72 to distribute a first portion 76and a second portion 78 of high bandwidth data flow 34 (described inreference to FIG. 1 ) to first transmit circuitry 66 and second transmitcircuitry 68, respectively. First circuitry 66 and second circuitry 68may have been instructed by the network to which the UE is connectedwith to use carriers (which may be referred to herein as subcarriers ofthe uplink bandwidth that the UE is using for a given network) that arenot adjacent to one another spectrally, as shown in the right sides ofFIGS. 8 and 9 which illustrate that a RAN does not always assignmultiple subcarriers (multiple subcarriers may be assigned to a given UEfor purposes of carrier aggregation) that are spectrally adjacent to oneanother for transmission operation by the given UE.

To facilitate simultaneous transmission of high bandwidth context dataaccording to second profile 72 and low bandwidth context data accordingto first profile 70, processor 64 may instruct stack 74 to direct allportions of the high bandwidth context according to the second profileto second transmit circuit 68 so that first transmit circuit 66 may beused to transmit the low bandwidth context traffic flow 36 (described inreference to FIG. 1 ) according to the first profile. First portion 76is shown as a broken line to represent that it may be moved from firsttransmit circuit 66 and combined with second portion 78 for combinedtransmission by second transmit circuit 78 while first transmit circuittransmits the first context flow 36.

If UE 14 moves to a location where the wireless signal is weak, itssecond context profile (i.e., the second profile that is used for thehigh bandwidth context) may negotiate a handoff to another cell(typically an eNodeB) that provide a stronger signal and that has acloser, or more direct, path for a wireless link between the UE and cellantenna. For example, in reference to FIG. 2 , if device 14 is currentlyconnected to local network 8 via link 20, and is linked to eNodeB 48B,but is moving away from eNodeB 48B and closer to eNodeB 48A, MME 50 maynote that the UE has been handed off to eNodeB 48 A. When the lowbandwidth first context that may still be established with eNodeB 48 Baccording to first profile 70 determines that its wireless signal linkis weak, it may negotiate a handoff to a stronger cell, in which case itwill follow the high bandwidth context and MME 50 will note that thefirst profile data context has been handed off to eNodeB 48A and will beusing whatever spectrum and transmit subcarriers eNodeB 48A hasinstructed UE 14 to use in connection with the second context which hasalready been handed over.

As part of the negotiation process between the low bandwidth firstcontext and the RAN (the negotiation typically occurs with the eNodeBs,but the MME associated with the current eNodeB could manage thenegotiation), in an aspect disclosed herein, the UE's first contextinforms the eNodeB to which it is currently connected (i.e., eNodeB 48Bin the example discussed above) that the only other RAN it can obtainadequate signal strength measurements from is eNodeB 48A, to which thesecond high bandwidth context has already been handed off. Even if thefirst context obtains measurement information from other eNodeB s, suchas an eNodeB 48C, that would indicate other eNodeBs to which the firstcontext could be handed off to and operate acceptably, the processor ofthe UE is configured, typically via software running thereon, tosuppress the sending of such information to current eNodeB 48B. Thus,since eNodeB 48B has received information that eNodeB 48A is the onlyother eNodeB that UE 14 can operate on, eNodeB 48B manages a hand off ofthe UE to eNodeB 48A, even if an eNodeB 48C would provide better signalstrength and may be currently serving fewer other subscribers or has alower resource utilization than eNodeB 48A. Processor 64, and coderunning thereon, manages this‘recessive-context-follows-the-dominant-context’ feature (“RCFD”), whichin essence ‘deceives’ the RAN such that the recessive first contextfollows the dominant second context by being handed off to the sameeNodeB as the dominant context, even if handing off the recessive firstcontext to a different eNodeB would be a benefit to the network by, forexample, resulting in a better RAN load balancing, or would result in aperformance benefit for the first context data flow. This RCFD featureensures that the recessive context necessarily follows the dominantcontext in handoffs from one cell to another so that the UE can continueto transmit the first and second contexts using a single transmit radiospectrum.

Aspects disclosed herein necessarily address problems rooted in mobilewireless networking technology and are wireless-mobile-network-centricbecause they are only of use when managing wireless network data bearertraffic between a user equipment device and a wireless mobile network.

What is claimed is:
 1. A user equipment device, comprising: a processorto: manage a first context traffic flow having a first class of serviceover a mobile network according to a first identity profile; manage asecond context traffic flow having a second class of service over themobile network according to a second identity profile; and distributeportions of the second context traffic flow by directing a first portionof the second context traffic flow to a first subcarrier transmitcircuit of the device and by directing at least a second portion of thesecond context traffic flow to a second subcarrier transmit circuit. 2.The user equipment device of claim 1 wherein the processor further:causes the first portion of the second traffic flow to be combined withthe second portion of the second traffic flow for combined transmissionby the second subcarrier transmit circuit while the first subcarriertransmit circuit transmits the first context traffic flow.
 3. The userequipment device of claim 1 wherein data traffic associated with both ofthe first and second traffic flows is routed to a single mobility anchorof a mobile network with which the single wireless transceiver is incommunication with.
 4. The user equipment device of claim 3 wherein themobility anchor is a serving gateway of the mobile network.
 5. The userequipment device of claim 1 further comprising a memory portion thatcontains: the first identity profile for use in accessing the firstclass of service; and the second identity profile for use in accessingthe second class of service.
 6. The user equipment device of claim 1wherein the processor only distributes to the first subcarrier transmitcircuit and to the second subcarrier transmit circuit the first andsecond portions of the second context traffic flow for transmission whenthere is no traffic of the first context traffic flow to be transmitted.7. The user equipment device of claim 1 wherein the first and secondcontext traffic flows are both transmitted in the same band of wirelessspectrum.
 8. The user equipment device of claim 1 wherein the processorfurther: causes the first transmit circuit and the second transmitcircuit to transmit the first portion and second portion of the seconddata session traffic flow, respectively, on sub carriers that are notspectrally adjacent to each other.
 9. The user equipment device of claim5 wherein each of the first identity profile and the second identityprofile is associated with a different long-range wireless network thanthe other.
 10. The user equipment device of claim 1 wherein theprocessor is further to: necessarily cause the first context trafficflow to follow a handoff from a first wireless cell to a second wirelesscell to follow a handoff already completed of the second context trafficflow from the first wireless cell to the second wireless cell accordingto the second identity profile.
 11. The user equipment device of claim 5wherein the memory portion stores at least one of the first and secondidentity profiles as an eSIM profile.
 12. The user equipment device ofclaim 1 wherein the first and second subcarrier transmit circuits arevirtual transmit circuits that use a single hardware circuit, whereinthe single hardware circuit uses a single digital to analog conversionmodule for transmission of the first and second portions of the secondcontext traffic flow.
 13. The user equipment device of claim 10 whereinthe user equipment device reports that the second wireless cell is theonly cell that can support an acceptable data communication session forthe first context data flow, even if a cell other than the first cell orthe second cell could support an acceptable data communication sessionfor the first context data flow.
 14. The user equipment device of claim13 wherein the first and second context data flows are EPS bearers. 15.A user equipment device, comprising: a processor to: manage thetransmission of a first context traffic flow having a first class ofservice over a mobile network according to a first identity profile;manage the transmission of a second context traffic flow having a secondclass of service over the mobile network, simultaneously with thetransmission of the first context traffic flow, according to a secondidentity profile; and wherein data traffic associated with both of thefirst and second traffic flows is routed to a single mobility anchor ofa mobile network with which a wireless transceiver of the user equipmentdevice is in communication with.
 16. The user equipment device of claim15, wherein the processor further: distributes portions of the secondcontext traffic flow by directing a first portion of the second contexttraffic flow to a first subcarrier transmit circuit of the device and bydirecting at least a second portion of the second context traffic flowto a second subcarrier transmit circuit; and causes the first transmitcircuit and the second transmit circuit to transmit the first portionand second portion of the second data session traffic flow,respectively, on sub carriers that are not spectrally adjacent to eachother.
 17. The user equipment device of claim 15, wherein the processorfurther: always causes a handoff procedure of the second context trafficflow associated with the second identity profile from a first cell to asecond cell before a handoff of the first context data flow that isassociated with the first identity profile can occur from the first cellto the second cell.
 18. The user equipment device of claim 17, whereinthe processor further: reports measurements during the handoff procedurethat the second cell is the only cell that can support an acceptabledata communication session for the first context data flow even if othercells could acceptably support the first context data flow.
 19. A userequipment device, comprising: a processor to: manage a first contexttraffic flow having a first class of service over a mobile networkaccording to a first identity profile; manage a second context trafficflow having a second class of service over the mobile network accordingto a second identity profile; necessarily cause the first contexttraffic flow to follow a handoff from a first wireless cell to a secondwireless cell to follow a handoff already completed of the secondcontext traffic flow from the first wireless cell to the second wirelesscell according to the second identity profile; and report that thesecond wireless cell is the only cell that can support an acceptabledata communication session for the first context data flow, even if acell other than the first cell or the second cell could support anacceptable data communication session for the first context data flow.20. The user equipment device of claim 19, wherein the processorfurther: distributes portions of the second context traffic flow bydirecting a first portion of the second context traffic flow to a firstsubcarrier transmit circuit of the device and by directing at least asecond portion of the second context traffic flow to a second subcarriertransmit circuit; and causes the first transmit circuit and the secondtransmit circuit to transmit the first portion and second portion of thesecond data session traffic flow, respectively, on sub carriers that arenot spectrally adjacent to each other.